Learning my way
by Mockingbirdflyaway
Summary: After a vicious attack that nearly takes the life of the woman he loves more than anything, Keitaro Higurashi sets out on a desperate mission to find his father's sword: the legendary Tetsussaiga.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: Don't own Inuyasha. Keitaro is mine though.

Kagome Higurashi crawled on her hands and knees towards the Bone Eater's well, trailing blood from the wound in her side. Her hair was matted and her face bloodied and scratched and she awkwardly dragged her bow with one hand. Her right foot was useless and the pain was excruciating. Nevertheless, she had to keep going she had to save Keitaro she had to protect her son, her little boy.

Inside, she was numb from grief, Her mate's final moments replaying over and over in her head. Hot, salty tears leaked from her eyes and mingled with the blood on her face.

_Inuyasha…! _Her heart cried out in agony and she could see in her mind's eye, her Inuyasha lying still on the ground, his golden eyes vacant and his neck twisted and the giant ryu-youkai standing over him, before turning to take her.

_Inuyasha…_ __

In his sling, little Keitaro whimpered at the smell of blood on his mother, but kept silent, as his basic instincts instructed him to do. Kagome lifted her head slightly. In the distance, she could see the well, twenty metres away.

_Twenty metres and Keitaro will be safe_… 

Kagome felt herself fall and her vision start to darken and the pain started to go away…

_No! I must make it to the well…_

Forcing herself back to consciousness, she continued to drag herself across the clearing. She had lost so much blood that she could barely crawl straight. After what seemed like forever, she reached the well. Reaching out, she summoned all her remaining strength to pull herself up. Letting go, she pitched forward into the well.

As the Time slip opened up to pull her and Keitaro through, Kagome felt herself start shutting down…

* * *

A baby's wail from the direction of the well house caught sixteen-year-old Higurashi Souta's attention immediately. Dropping his book bag, he sprinted across the shrine grounds to the well house. Throwing open the shoji, he jumped the steps and peered into the darkened well.

The sight at the bottom made Souta's heart stop.

Kagome lay curled protectively around Keitaro's baby sling with a gaping wound in her side, blood pooling around her. Souta scrambled down the ladder as quickly as he could, jumping the last ten feet.

Falling to his knees, Souta ripped off his shirt and tried to staunch the wound in Kagome's side. Keitaro continued to wail as Kagome's eyes fluttered open.

"It's too late Souta…" she whispered.

"No! No Kagome! Don't you say that! You _will _live," cried Souta, trying even harder to stop the bleeding. Tears streamed down his cheeks and his shoulders shook. Kagome shook her head slightly.

"No… I will…join…Inuyasha…in the…afterlife…"

"Inuyasha…is _dead_?" asked Souta, barely believing it. The inu-hanyou who had seemed all powerful and immortal to him, who was the older brother he had never had…was gone…

"How…How did he die? What happened to both of you?" cried Souta, pushing a lock of Kagome's hair out of her face. The grief was raw in his sister's brown eyes.

"An attack…" she said softly, "the ryu-youkai…"

"Kagome…_No_…_you can't die too…_" gasped Souta, gathering his elder sister in his shaking arms. Kagome looked up at him, her eyes reflecting her pain.

"I'll get you out of the well… I can get you to hospital… You can _live_…" said Souta frantically, yet deep down, he knew…He knew that Kagome would not make it…

_No… Kagome…Don't do this to me, don't leave me, Mama and jii-chan_… 

"Keitaro…" she whispered, slowly turning her head to her screaming son. Souta pulled the baby closer, so that Keitaro was between both of them.

"Kagome…please…" begged Souta through his tears, "please don't die…"

"_I'm sorry_…" he could barely heard her words as her eyes fluttered closed. Her shallow breathing slowly stilled, her head slumped and her body relaxed.

"_Kagome_!" cried Souta, "_Kagome…Nooooo!!"_

Sobs wracked his body as he held the shell that had once been his beloved sister. A knife dug into his chest and ripped away part of his soul. Little Keitaro began to howl and scream as the smell of his mother's death reached him.

"Kagome…" whispered Souta, gently lowering his sister's body to the ground. Reaching over her, he lifted Keitaro from his sling and cradled the screaming infant against his chest. Shaking, he gently undid the necklace that held the nearly completed Shikon jewel around Kagome's neck. Placing it in his pocket, he slowly rose to his feet.

For several minutes, he stood there, unable to move his legs and unable to tear his gaze away from her body. _Kagome…is dead…Inuyasha…dead… What about the others? Sango? Miroku? Shippou? What happened to all of them? _

Finally, he was able to slowly climb the ladder, his arms and legs threatening to give out on him. As he pulled himself over the edge of the well, Mama came out of the house. She caught sight of him, shirtless, covered in Kagome's blood and holding Keitaro and screamed.

"Souta!" she cried running towards him, "What happened?!"

"Mama…" choked Souta, "Kagome… she… she… there was…an attack… Kagome and Inuyasha are_…" _Mama didn't need him to finish the sentence,

With a scream of grief, Mama Higurashi fell to her knees, her face paling and she shook violently. Souta knelt beside her and hugged her tightly as he could. Their tears fell on Keitaro's face.

"_My baby…"_ murmured Mama blankly through her tears, "_My little girl_…"

Souta pulled away slightly and rocked his screaming nephew, in hopes of quieting the little inu-hanyou. The baby screamed himself to sleep, but neither Souta, Mama nor jii-chan could sleep as the ambulance and rescue crews took Kagome's body away.

Questions were asked, but the authorities were told that an animal had attacked Kagome in the well house and she had lost her balance and fallen. When one police officer left the shrine grounds, he saw the Higurashi family huddled in the middle of the grounds, trying in vain to comfort the little son of the deceased, while tears of grief streamed from their own eyes.

It was a sight that he would never forget.


	2. Chapter 1

"Hey! Higurashi! Want a bone? Go fetch boy!"

Something hard hit the back of Higurashi Keitaro's head as he came out the doors of the middle school, knocking off his baseball cap, revealing his white ears to the jeering crowd of his schoolmates, who all laughed uproariously and imitated dog barking. Struggling to reign in his emotions, Keitaro bent down to pick up the cap and put it back on his head.

Without turning around, he kept walking.

_I will not react. I will not let them win. I will not react. I will not let them get to me. I will not react..._

Taking a deep breath, he increased his pace, knowing that they would never be able to catch up. He dreaded it every day, having to go through the front doors of his school. He had tried sneaking in a side door, but they had found him. He had even tried leaping to the roof, only to discover that the rooftop doors were all locked.

They never touched him, wary of his claws and fangs, but they knew Keitaro would never attack them unless one of them threw the first punch. The one who started it always ended up in hospital. After three instances like this, the group of popular boys who made Higurashi Keitaro's life miserable had found other ways of tormenting the lonely inu-hanyou.

Keitaro wasn't even sure if he was technically a hanyou, being the son of one, but it didn't really matter. He was still faster, stronger and more powerful than any human. His hair was black, unlike Inuyasha's, but Keitaro was still his father's son and had inherited almost all of Inuyasha's youkai traits. He had inherited his mother's kindness and her generosity. He was also quiet and did not like to draw attention to himself, lest someone notice something else unusual about him other than his puppy-dog ears and his golden eyes.

Keitaro ducked into an alleyway, stuffed his cap in his backpack and leaped up to a fire escape. With a series of leaps and bounds, he was crossing the rooftops of Tokyo at the fastest speed that his hanyou abilities would allow him to go.

_At least those bastards will never be able to do this...That is my one comfort. _Thought Keitaro as he glimpsed the tip of Goshinboku in the distance, signaling he was rapidly approaching the Higurashi shrine. With a final spinning leap across the main road in front of the shrine, Keitaro landed lightly on the roof of the house. Cautiously checking for visitors to the shrine, he jumped nimbly down from the roof and pushed open the back door of the house.

"Mama, I'm home!" he called, setting down his backpack.

Mama, who was on the phone, smiled and nodded to him, motioning to the plate on the table, piled high with his favourite cookies – the chocolate chip kind from America. Keitaro grinned and grabbed a handful. Pulling his homework out of his bag, he made his way upstairs to his mother's old room, which was now his.

He sat at his desk and opened up his English homework, a subject that he always had problems with. While munching on a cookie, he wondered about how could anyone understand the English alphabet. He always mixed up the letters and spellings. 'b' and 'd' looked the same on a test, as did 'z' and 's'. 'L', 't' and 'I' weren't much better... How could anyone expect him to get it right?

Stopping for a second, he gazed at the necklace that hung on a metal stand on his desk. On it hung the half completed Shikon jewel, sealed by several of Jii-chan's ofuda's. At least there weren't to many youkai in Tokyo to sense it and come looking for it. So far, he had only had to defend it against a raccoon youkai and a crow youkai with three eyes. Not many demons could stand the hustle and bustle of Tokyo... Keitaro still had problems with it and he was _used _to it, having spent most of his sixteen years of life in the large and crowded metropolis.

After several hours of struggling, Keitaro switched to his math homework. Finishing that, he turned to his science homework. After that, he tackled his history project. Thanking his ability to be able to function with minimal sleep, Keitaro fell into bed at 2 am.

He was asleep before his head hit the pillow.

* * *

Rising with the sun, Keitaro had breakfast and got ready for school. He combed his hair while being careful to avoid catching his ears in the comb's teeth. He filed down his claws slightly and brushed his teeth.

He sat in the God Tree until Mama baachan came out and insisted that he leave, lest he be late. Keitaro always put off going to school until the very last moment, clinging to the hope that the gang of boys would think he was not coming and go inside. It never happened. Resigned to his fate, Keitaro sprinted and lept across the rooftops of Tokyo.

He landed in the alleyway and put on his cap. As he turned the corner, he could already smell Yukio and his gang. Keitaro couldn't have thought up a better name for the other boy. '_Get's what he wants' indeed... _Nishimura Yukio was one of the wealthiest boys in school and he seemed to get everything he wanted; the grades, the girls, the toys, everything.

_But he will not get me to bow down to him. Ever. _

Keitaro strode up the front steps of the school, refusing to sneak in for once.

"Hey Higurashi, marked any trees lately?" called an obnoxious voice. Yukio as usual, around him, his gang laughed and made barking noises.

Keitaro ground his teeth and determinedly ignored Yukio's jibe. Underneath his cap, his ears were flat against his head in sheer irritation. Part of him longed to turn around and fix Nishimura so that he could never ever mark a tree even if he tried. Suppressing that impulse, Keitaro made for his first (and most hated) class: English.

Keitaro sat in the middle of the classroom. Unfortunately, Yukio was in the same class, but Baker-sensei was an understanding and strict teacher. After the first disastrous day of the school year, where he had made Keitaro sit next to Yukio and had returned unexpectedly photocopying an assignment to find that Yukio had stolen Keitaro's hat and was ridiculing Keitaro in front of the entire class.

Baker-sensei had made sure to keep at least one empty desk between Higurashi and Nishimura and kept an eagle's watch on Yukio. While all the other teachers thought Yukio was Kami-sama's gift to their classroom, Baker-sensei was not fooled at all. Keitaro was thankful that Yukio could not bother him in the class where he needed to concentrate the most.

They were halfway through a lesson on English poetry when there was a knock on the door. Principal Yasukawa was standing there, she motioned Baker-sensei into the hallway for a moment. The class looked at each other in puzzlement.

Several minutes later, Baker-sensei came back into the class, behind him was a girl with long wavy black hair and round dark blue eyes. Keitaro guessed her height to be around 5 foot 6. She was slim and extremely pretty. Keitaro's nose told him that she was also extremely nervous. Keitaro risked a sideways glance at Nishimura. Yukio was staring at the new girl with a smug expression.

"Class," said Baker-sensei in English, "We have a new student; Mariko Fujita, Mariko... you can sit..." Baker-sensei looked around the classroom and frowned. The only empty desk was between Higurashi and Nishimura.

"You can sit between Higurashi and Nishimura,"

Mariko smiled weakly and edged her way down the aisle, sliding into the empty desk. Keitaro inhaled as she passed him, carefully memorizing her scent, a mix of vanilla, perspiration and something else that he couldn't really identify, but liked anyways. Yukio leaned over to introduce himself and smiled the heartbreaking smile that he used on girls. Keitaro sighed and watched out of the corner of his eye while taking notes.

Mariko glanced over at him, her eyes darting up to his hat curiously, before flashing him a shy smile and Keitaro smiled back, feeling his stomach flutter slightly. Yukio noticed this immediately and shot him a glare over Mariko's head that could have melted lead, but his charming expression reappeared immediately when Mariko turned back to her notes.

The remainder of the class, Keitaro had to endure listening to Yukio impressing upon Mariko, who seemed to listen attentively to both Yukio and Baker-sensei at the same time. A breeze swept in the classroom windows and Mariko's scent, along with everyone else's where replaced by the smells of exhaust fumes and the general city-smell that Keitaro had always associated with Tokyo. Keitaro frowned and wrinkled his nose, once again wishing that they could live somewhere without so much pollution

"Higurashi"

"_What_?" Keitaro snapped out of his thoughts and discovered that Baker-sensei was staring straight at him along with the rest of the class. Behind him and beside him, he could hear laughter. The people laughing probably thought he couldn't hear it.

"Firstly Higurashi, we are in English class, instead of saying '_what_' you say 'pardon?' secondly, I was asking you whether you had read any of the poems, as I assigned for homework,"

Feeling his face turn bright red, Keitaro nodded.

"Good, then you can tell me who was the poet describing in 'The Butterfly'" Keitaro swallowed nervously. He hadn't been able to understand that poem. Poems were a waste of time in Keitaro's opinion. Why did poets have to dance around what they were writing about? Why couldn't they just get to the point? Keitaro felt his mouth open and close but no sound came out.

"I didn't understand it," said Keitaro, bowing his head. The giggles increased and Baker-sensei silenced them with a sharp glance.

"Very well Keitaro... Mariko, you were told to read the poem before you arrived yes?"

Mariko nodded and shot Keitaro an apologetic look before answering in perfectly accented English, "The poem was about the poet's young daughter Vanessa."

"Very good Mariko, for those of you who do not know, the name 'Vanessa' means butterfly in Greek," noted Baker-sensei. There was a scratching of pens and pencils as four students jotted down this extra tidbit of information. Keitaro could recognize the sounds of their pen strokes.

When the bell rang for next class, Science, he watched with irritation as Yukio walked with Mariko in the direction of the math wing.

* * *

Keitaro didn't see Mariko until the end of the school day when he caught sight of her and Yukio standing outside the front doors with Yukio's gang. Several other girls were gathered around and asking Mariko questions, from the sound of it. Yukio's arm was trying to snake its way around Mariko's shoulders. Keitaro suppressed a growl with effort.

Standing in the shadows near the entrance to the school, Keitaro listened in on the questioning. He discovered that Mariko had moved to Tokyo from Seattle, but had lived in Tokyo when she was young. Her mother was American while her father was Japanese and she had a younger brother. Her favourite band was Lillix and she loved the Harry Potter books, which Keitaro had never read. Now he wondered if he should borrow a copy from the library.

After checking his watch and discovering that he should have been home ten minutes ago, he tried to walk past the large group without anyone noticing. He made it halfway down the stairs before Yukio noticed his retreating baseball cap.

"Hey Higurashi! I've got another bone for you!" Keitaro ducked the flying T-bone and kept descending the steps. The girls were silent as Yukio's gang took up their barking chant. "Oh, So you don't like bones _dog, _Perhaps your off to go digging?" called Yukio maliciously.

SMACK.

"OWWW!!!"

Keitaro whipped around and gasped right along with everyone else. Mariko brought her hand back and delivered another vicious slap across Yukio's face.

"OWWW!!! BITCH!! What the HELL did you do that for?" cried Yukio, his pink cheeks rapidly getting redder. Keitaro wasn't sure whether it was more from embarrassment or anger, as Yukio reeked of both.

"Shut your trap bastard, what's he ever done to you?" demanded Mariko angrily, "You've been a complete wise-ass all day, and your always putting him down...What has he _ever _done to you? Tell me that."

There was a ringing silence on the steps. No one quite knew what to say. Yukio was the most popular boy in school, handsome, smart and rich and Keitaro was a shrine boy with weird ears and eyes. It seemed almost obvious to them why Yukio did what he did.

Keitaro stared at Mariko with a new kind of respect. No one he knew had the guts to take on Nishimura Yukio. Keitaro knew that he could easily kill Yukio, but he didn't like starting fights and he didn't want to kill anybody, but sometimes that wish was severely tested.

To his credit, Yukio recovered quickly.

"Higurashi's a freak of nature, I don't think he's even human... He shouldn't even be in this school!"

Mariko glanced down the steps at Keitaro, sizing him up. Keitaro tried to smile at her, but it came out more like a grimace.

"He doesn't look weird to me," she declared.

"Tell him to take his hat off, then you'll see why he doesn't belong," shot back Yukio confidently. Keitaro felt his heart stop. He knew that everyone knew about his ears and had seen them on at least one occasion. Everyone except Mariko. He had hoped that maybe... maybe he could talk to her first... maybe she could discover that he was normal... before she ended up finding about his ears.

Mariko turned to him and raised an eyebrow. Keitaro swallowed and beads of sweat trickled down his neck.

"Take your hat off... Surely it can't be _that _bad," she said, watching him with interest.

Yukio grinned wickedly, "Yah Higurashi, take your hat off and show her...surely it can't be _that _bad_..._" He mimicked Mariko's voice. Mariko glared at him and turned back to Keitaro.

"Come on...take it off...prove to him its not that bad," She said insistently.

"Yeah Higurashi! Take it off!" called Aki, a boy in Yukio's gang of friends. The rest of them join in with catcalls and taunts about his courage. Keitaro swallowed and choked. He couldn't get out of this now...

Mariko watched the wiry boy look up at her with an expression of utter despair. His golden eyes pleaded with her, asked her, begged her, to give him a way out and she wondered what he wanted to keep hidden so badly.

"Please Higurashi," she said softly, "take it off."

Keitaro felt himself slump, resigned to his fate. Mariko felt her heart twist at the sad expression on his face. Slowly, he reached up and pulled off the baseball cap. His gold eyes met Mariko's and refused to let them go. Even as her jaw dropped open and her eyes widened at the sight of his white, furry, twitching ears.

_See what you've done? _He thought, staring up at Mariko.

There was silence for several minutes as everyone waited with baited breathe to see how the New Girl would react to Higurashi's dog-ears. Without saying anything, Mariko descended the steps until she was on the step above the one Keitaro stood on. Despite being on step higher than he, he still was a good five inches taller than she was.

Her face had lost its stunned quality and now she was scrutinizing him carefully.

"Can I touch them?" she asked quietly.

Keitaro felt his eyes widen. _Touch _his ears? No one had ever asked to do that... and the only one who had touched them besides himself was Mama-baachan, and she only occasionally scratched them.

"Um... Okay..." He said bowing his head slightly so she could reach them easier. Mariko reached up and stroked his left ear, then his right. Keitaro's eyes fluttered closed. _Ohh...feels gooood..._

Mariko let her hands fall to her side and she smiled slightly.

"See? Not that bad..." She looked at him appraisingly, "I think they're kinda cute,"

Keitaro flushed a deep, dark red and his ears lowered.

"I...um...I...." He stammered then he caught sight of his watch. He was supposed to have been home twenty minutes ago.

"I... gotta go... See you..." With that, Keitaro jammed his hat back on and was gone. Mariko blinked with surprise and spotted Keitaro running down the block. He turned a corner and disappeared. Slowly, she turned round and walked back up the steps.

"I don't think there's anything wrong with him..." she proclaimed triumphantly to Yukio. Yukio scowled, but said nothing, which was more surprising than Keitaro allowing Mariko to touch his ears. Yukio always had something to say.

"I think you should apologize to him," continued Mariko, examining her nails.

_No way in hell am I going to apologize to that freak _Thought Yukio darkly.

Again, Yukio said nothing. His gang of friends was starting to look nervous, while the girls were watching the spectacle with wonder.

Mariko raised an eyebrow.

"What's with you Nishimura? Cat got your tongue?"

"No," spat Yukio.

"Good, cause if one did, I'd feel awfully sorry for the poor cat, having to swallow a tongue as filthy as yours," replied Mariko conversationally. There was a snort of laughter somewhere in the assembled group.

Mariko turned and headed down the steps, smiling.

"See you guys! It was so nice meeting you all!" she called cheerfully over her shoulder.

With that, she was gone.


	3. Chapter 2

* * *

Mariko spent most of that night online, alternating between chatting with Mary-Anne and Izumi; two of her American friends on MSN and looking up ways that anybody could end up with dog-ears. Unsurprisingly, Keitaro's ears resembled those of the _Akita inu_ breed of dog, native of Japan's Honshu Island. She made almost no progress and called it a night after several hours of searching.

Flopping into bed, she stared up at the dolphin poster that she had tacked to her ceiling. Out the window, despite it being about midnight, the cacophony of the cars and crowds did not fade.

_How on Earth am I supposed to get used to this? Urgh... I miss Seattle...it was so much quieter._

Reaching over to her nightstand, she picked up a pair of earplugs and stuffed them in her ears. It dulled the sound a bit, but not enough. Exasperated, she pulled her stereo out of the box it had been packed in and set in on the floor next to her bed. She plugged it in and dug out her headphones and her _Enya _CD. Turning on the music, she flipped to a relatively slow and relaxing song. Putting on the headphones, she turned up the volume until she could barely hear the noise on the street below.

She was asleep within five minutes.

* * *

Keitaro waited anxiously around the corner from the school for any sign of Mariko, but it was then that he discovered that she was already inside. Keitaro glanced around the corner. Yukio stood at the top of the steps, arms crossed. Keitaro could smell his anger from where he stood.

Then an idea occurred to him.

_Why am I standing here? I should be able to walk past him without expecting anything malicious. I could scare him... not hurt him, but definitely scare him._

Grinning ferally, he rounded the corner and strode down the street a little faster than he usually did. Yukio spotted him immediately and stood taller, thrusting his chest out. Keitaro almost laughed.

_Yukio has held me under his sway all this time… by trying to avoid him I let him win… so now I must show him who's boss, or who is the alpha, as my father would have said…_

"Hey dog shit!" called Yukio.

Keitaro took the steps in one leap, landing in front of Yukio and ignoring the gasps of his classmates all around him. Baring his fangs, he grabbed Yukio by the shoulder and dug his claws on just enough to create holes in Yukio's clothes, his fingers felt one of his claws go a little to far and a bead of blood rose from Nishimura's skin. Yukio squirmed, his face paling. A feeling of pleasure erupted throughout Keitaro's body as he smelled and enjoyed Yukio's fear.

"I could kill you with ease Nishimura," growled Keitaro, "but you are lucky that I am more like my mother. I do not like killing. Be thankful I am not like my father in that way, He would have killed you long ago and there wouldn't have been enough left of you to bury," _Alright, a slight exaggeration..._

Yukio shivered and gulped, his face sheet white. Keitaro felt his grin widen. _Perfect. _

He let go of Yukio and strode past him, into the school. Frowning, he ducked into a corner and set his sights inward, trying to calm to calm his rapidly beating heart. He felt powerful, unbreakable and dangerous. Closing his eyes, Keitaro rested his forehead against the cool wall, trying to calm his raging blood.

_My youkai blood liked that...liked it too much. I must never do that again, I do not have a sealing sword like Otou-san did. I do not have Tetsussaiga. I cannot risk losing control. I do not know what my blood rage would be like. I am only one-quarter youkai, but I must not risk it. Ever. _

"Keitaro?"

Keitaro jerked up, a snarl on his lips, which he bit back just in time. Mariko stood there, clutching several notebooks, looking at him with a concerned expression. Keitaro mentally kicked himself. He should have noticed her approaching.

"You okay?" she asked, tilting her head slightly.

"Fine...just give me a second," Keitaro took a deep, shuddering breath. Oddly enough, Mariko's smell calmed him slightly.

"Word has it that you nearly killed Yukio," she said cautiously.

Keitaro barked out a harsh laugh. _Five minutes. It took five minutes for that to reach the other end of the school. _

"Nearly killed? Hardly. Scared him, Yes, but I'm not going to kill him, I don't do that,"

Mariko stared at him, frowning. He seemed to be trembling slightly and his baseball cap was lopsided, so that she could see the bottom of one of his strange white ears peeking through his black hair. He was also hyperventilating, the pupils of his golden eyes wide. His clawed hands braced himself against the wall. Suddenly, Mariko knew that Keitaro wasn't as human as he let on. Yukio was right, but for some reason, this information did not scare her.

"Your not really human are you?" asked Mariko.

Keitaro looked at her, his wild golden eyes suddenly calming. Instantly, he was himself again...yet different, more confident. He was silent for a minute, thinking hard.

"I am human," he said finally, "but I am also something else."

The two of them were silent for several seconds, and then the bell rang.

"See you in class Mariko," and Keitaro walked past her, his back straight and tall. Not hunched and wary like it had been the day before. "See you..." echoed Mariko. A ways away, she saw Keitaro nod, as if he had heard her.

Mariko watched him go, her mind buzzing with possibilities of what he could be. Turning on her heel, she headed off to gym class. She didn't want to be late, as Coach Genji was not a patient teacher.

* * *

Mariko caught up with Keitaro just after lunch and dragged him to a vacant cafeteria table. Many people watched this with interest. Unwrapping her tuna sandwich, she waited until Keitaro had bought his lunch and had rejoined her at the table.

Keitaro sat and started eating without saying anything. He wasn't going to volunteer anything. Mariko frowned. Around them, the chatter of the cafeteria provided ample privacy of conversation, if one didn't speak to loudly.

"So, what are you then?" she asked straight out. Keitaro gave her a tolerant look.

"I'd rather keep things like that to myself," he replied evenly, glancing up from his bento lunch. "You already know more than you should," he continued, his voice low. Underneath his cap his ears flicked back and forth, monitoring the conversations near them for any unkindly gossip. There was a group of girls three tables away speculating if he and Mariko were going out, but they were too far away for Keitaro to safely tell them to mind their own business.

Mariko fixed Keitaro with a stare that had bent many other boys to her will. Keitaro raised an eyebrow.

"Giving me the evil eye isn't going to make me tell you Mariko,"

..._And If I even hint that I might tell her anytime soon, she'll never stop asking_...

Mariko glared at him for several more seconds, before deflating slightly.

"Fine," she said sullenly, "You win,"

"I wasn't aware that there was a competition between us," he replied dryly, his amusement obvious.

Mariko scowled at him, her blue eyes hard.

"Oh! I see a smile... twitching right there," Keitaro tapped the corner of Mariko's mouth. Mariko twitched, trying to force her expression back into the scowl, but she was losing the battle. Keitaro stuck his tongue out at her while crossing his eyes and she burst unwillingly into giggles, dropping her sandwich onto the table.

"Not...fair..." she choked out.

"What's not fair about it? You were already smiling,"

"Was not," shot back Mariko indignantly.

"Of course you were, otherwise, you'd never have started laughing at something as stupid as me sticking my tongue out at you...that stuff makes a two-year-old laugh," replied Keitaro calmly, a ghost of a smile on his own face.

Mariko tried to scowl, but started giggling again when Keitaro stuck his tongue out at her again.

"Damn, it's easy to make you laugh," remarked Keitaro.

Mariko grimaced.

"I always lose at Dead donkey because of it," she replied. Keitaro blinked.

"Dead donkey...?" he asked, puzzled.

"It's a game... a bunch of people lie on the floor and one or two people go around and try to make the others laugh without touching them or tickling them. If they make you laugh, you have to get up and help them make the other people laugh, and the person who's straight face lasts the longest wins," explained Mariko, "I suck at it... I can't play poker because of it,"

"Ah," said Keitaro, thinking of the poker games he had participated in with Uncle Souta and his friends. He didn't have the best poker face either, but he nearly always won because he could smell the difference between someone who was bluffing and someone who wasn't. Most of Uncle Souta's friends had given up in disgust at being beaten several times in a row by someone who was twenty or so years younger than they were.

"What's it like in America?" asked Keitaro, changing the subject.

Mariko got an odd, far away look in her eyes.

"Different... and much quieter, I can barely sleep here in Tokyo because there is so much noise and I miss all my friends, especially Izumi, Mia and Laura. They were my best friends..." replied Mariko, looking down at the table, "My parents like it here though, because my father's family is so close... My mother did not have much family back in the US,"

She glanced up suddenly.

"Does all the noise here bother you?" she asked earnestly.

"Yah, it does... I hate the smell too, but I'm used to it," replied Keitaro, wrinkling his nose. Mariko raised an eyebrow.

"How good's your sense of smell?" she asked pointedly.

Keitaro grimaced.

"Good enough to tell me things that I don't want to know," he replied.

"Like what?" pressed Mariko innocently.

"Like... Never mind," said Keitaro, shaking his head.

Trust me on this one Mariko... You don't want to know...

"Come on, tell me!" pleaded Mariko.

"You don't want to know,"

"Please?"

"No,"

"Please?" Mariko fixed him with what he swore was soulful puppy dog eyes. Not a very convincing version of it though, for Keitaro's resolve didn't waver. He sighed.

"No,"

Mariko scowled and crossed her arms. Keitaro laughed at her exaggerated anger.

"You've got a smile in there somewhere..." He said, leaning in and squinting at her twitching mouth, pretending to be looking for it. Mariko broke down once more and started laughing.

"You suck," she gasped out, still laughing.

Keitaro raised an eyebrow and grinned.

"No, I don't, your just mad that I'm not telling you anything," he replied, setting his hat lower on his head. Mariko sighed.

"I'm never going to win am I?" she asked, peeling open a container of yoghurt.

"Nope," said Keitaro cheerfully, "You might as well accept that," Mariko looked as though she wanted to slap him silly. Keitaro snorted at her expression, causing some rice to go up his nose.

"Ack!!!!" he cried

Mariko started laughing at the pained expression on his face as he tried dislodging the rice.

"You... look... like... a ...dork..." she gasped, wiping her eyes.

"Gee...thanks," grumbled Keitaro, rubbing his nose. It was sore on the inside, but at least all the grains of rice that had been up it were gone.

Mariko stuck her tongue out at him.

Both were reduced to fits of laughter.

* * *

Nishimura Yukio arrived at home that afternoon, torn between trembling with fear and shaking with rage.

Higurashi had ruined his reputation at school. Shattered it. No one respected him or feared him, now that Higurashi had shown his true self, so to speak. He had acted like a coward, sure of his own demise. The wild look in Keitaro's eyes had struck fear in his heart and he had acted like a _coward!_

Yukio had always suspected that Keitaro was not fully human. Now he knew. Now he just needed a bit more proof.

Higurashi Keitaro was going _down_.


	4. Chapter 3

IY Chapter 3

AN: Gahhh!!! The edited version of this chapter disappeared into cyber-oblivion and my beta reader can't find it on his computer either. Ah well, I apologize for any errors in this chapter before hand. If you see them, point them out!

* * *

Sango stared up at the clear blue sky above Kaede's village. In the distance, she could see Inuyasha's forest. Every day, she watched the forest, hoping to see her good friend approaching the village from the well; perhaps she would have little Keitaro in tow.

She knew it would never happen.

_Fifteen years... Fifteen years ago today, Inuyasha, Kagome and Keitaro died. _

A tear slid down the tajiya's face, then another... and another.

_Oh Kagome, I would give anything to see you and Inuyasha again..._

"Okaa-san?" said a cautious voice, "Are you alright?"

Sango hurriedly wiped her eyes and turned to see her eldest daughter, seventeen-year-old Rika approaching, a basket of laundry balanced on her hip.

Sango nodded, not trusting her voice completely.

"Your thinking about Kagome and Inuyasha again aren't you?" asked Rika quietly, shifting the basket from one hip to the other, "Otou-san is also looking sad today..."

"It was exactly fifteen years ago that they died," replied Sango softly, turning back to stare at Inuyasha's forest, the breeze ruffling both hers and Rika's hair. Rika was silent, thinking of the vague memories she had of a silver haired man with funny ears and his kind wife.

"Come Okaa-san, let's go back to the village" Rika took her mother's arm and guided her back towards their hut.

* * *

Over the next three weeks, Fujita Mariko and Higurashi Keitaro became best friends. Rumors and gossip followed them down the hallways, but neither cared, because they knew it was all bullshit and hearsay.

Mariko invited Keitaro over to her house several times and the two of them (plus Mariko's younger brother, Akihiro, occaisionally) would battle it out on the Fujita's X-box, or sit around and listen to music, talking and complaining about school and annoying things (such as Nishimura) in general.

Mariko's mother, a slender woman with brown hair and Mariko's dark blue eyes, had instantly taken the opportunity to tease her daughter about acquiring a boyfriend so quickly, not to mention a cute one.

"Mom!" cried Mariko indignantly, flushing bright red, grabbing a bag of cookies off the kitchen counter and dragging Keitaro to her bedroom.

"So, how many boyfriends have you had?" asked Keitaro slyly as Mariko shut the door to her room and threw the cookies at him with more force than necessary. He could smell faded traces of about five other boys on her, one had a fading trace of youki, but he couldn't identify the species.

He caught the bag of cookies easily, opened it with one claw, took six cookies and tossed the package back to her.

Mariko gaped at him without bothering to catch the cookies. They hit her in the stomach and dropped to the ground, but she didn't seem to notice.

"What?" he asked through a mouthful of cookie.

"You... you did that so _fast,_"

"Did what?" he raised a puzzled eyebrow.

"Got the cookies... I tossed it too you and blinked and the bag was flying back at me and you had a handful of cookies!"

For a second Keitaro looked panicked and his ears flattened against his head.

"Erhm... maybe I'm really really hungry...?" he volunteered weakly. 

Mariko gave him a look that told him that she knew that explanation was complete and utter bull-shit, even if she didn't know exactly why. Neither of them went back to the subject and spent the afternoon doing homework. Mariko was fluent in English, something that Keitaro was extremely grateful for and Keitaro helped her with math homework, which was something that Mariko barely managed to pass each year.

"It's so much more complicated when written in Japanese!" cried Mariko, throwing down her pencil in disgust, "I thought English math was bad enough!"

Keitaro sighed, rolling his eyes and leaned over to help her with the problem.

* * *

When Keitaro had invited Mariko to the Higurashi shrine, Mama-baachan had been waiting at the door.

"There you are Keitaro! Where have you _been!?_ I expected you home a half hour ago!" she cried, before noticing Mariko.

"Sorry Mama-baachan.... we...erhm...walked took the _long _route home," he explained, hoping she would catch on.

"Oh...right... the long route," agreed Mama, as Mariko bowed in greeting, while eyeing Keitaro suspiciously.

_We took the most direct route to the shrine... no way could it have been the 'long' route, unless I don't know about some other way... and we were walking pretty fast... How could Keitaro get home so fast? _Wondered Mariko.

Keitaro's grandmother fixed them snacks and they went upstairs to Keitaro's room. The first thing that Mariko noticed was a small, glowing pink jewel that hung on a necklace from a stand on his desk.

"What's this?" she asked, leaning close to look at it. A wedge shaped piece of it was missing.

"It was my mother's," replied Keitaro, "and now it's mine... I have to protect it,"

"From thieves? Is it that valuable?" asked Mariko, eyeing the benign looking jewel.

"Yah, from thieves... It looks pretty ordinary, but it's worth more than...well...It's worth quite a bit," he replied, pulling his books from his backpack.

"...And you just leave it sitting in your room?" asked Mariko disbelievingly.

"Yah...that's about the long and the short of it..." replied Keitaro, now munching on the sushi that Mama-baachan had prepared.

"Shouldn't you like take it with you? So you could protect it better?" continued Mariko curiously.

"I used to wear it when I was a younger - but now, if I wear it and got really angry, like I did at that asshole; Nishimura, I'd taint it," answered Keitaro offhandedly, dropping to his knees and digging around under his bed, looking for something. Mariko distinctly heard him sniff the air.

_Taint it?_ She wondered, _Oh boy... Life is sure getting strange with Keitaro around_.

Keitaro found what he was looking for in a matter of seconds, a package of unopened lined paper. Mariko took this as an opportunity to look around his room. On the wall over his headboard, a wooden bow was hung on two hooks. She could almost feel the reverence that it had been hung with. His closet hung half open, and one of the drawers in his dresser was slightly opened. What caught her eye were the pictures on top of dresser.

  
The first picture was of two people, a smiling young woman wearing a blue skirt and a white blouse, and a man, with long silver hair and his arms protectively wrapped around the woman's shoulders. He was wearing an old-fashioned red haori and hakama and on his head was a baseball cap.

He had a wry grin on his face and his golden eyes peered out of the picture as if to say _I see you. _

With a jolt, Mariko realized she was looking at a picture of Keitaro's parents.

Another was a wedding picture of the two. Mariko felt her eyebrows go up as she saw the puppy-dog ears on the silver haired man's head. There was a third picture, of Keitaro's mother holding a black haired infant, presumably Keitaro.

"What do you think?" asked Keitaro. Mariko jumped and felt herself hit something warm and solid. Keitaro had been right behind her.

"They're your parents right?" she asked, motioning to the pictures.

"Yah," replied Keitaro quietly.

"What were their names?" she asked curiously.

"Inuyasha and Kagome..."

"Inuyasha...? Doesn't that mean-" started Mariko, only to be cut off by Keitaro.

"Dog demon? Yah... So, what was that problem you were having? On page 56?" Keitaro flipped open their math text.

"Keitaro, why don't you just tell me what your big secret is?" demanded Mariko, irritated at his attempt to change the subject, "I already know there's something different about you... you know things you couldn't possibly know, you've got the ears, you can move faster than anybody! Come on, I've noticed all this stuff... I just want to know _why..."_

Keitaro fixed her with a level stare, his golden eyes betraying nothing of his thoughts. His ears were still and trained forward.

"What do you think I am?" he finally asked.

Mariko snorted.

"I'm tempted to say 'crazy' y'know," she replied pointedly.

A ghost of a smile appeared on Keitaro's face.

"Well... I could seem crazy if I told you what I am," he said, tilting his head.

"Doesn't matter, just bloody well tell me, because if you don't, I'll smash your head in with that lamp there," she pointed to the reading lamp that sat on Keitaro's desk. Keitaro laughed outright at that.

"Try it,"

"What?!"

"Try and smash my head in," at Mariko's horrified look, he laughed again, "Don't worry, it won't hurt me... I once miscalculated a jump and fell twelve stories, and I was able to get up and keep going without much trouble,"

"Yah! Much _trouble,_ because you bloody well broke something! Your neck maybe!" cried Mariko disbelievingly.

Keitaro shook his head.

"Nope... well, I did break something..." (Mariko flinched) "... A bunch of eggs, Mama-baachan had sent me out to get groceries, she wouldn't let me in the house though until I had hosed myself down and had gotten more eggs, then she yelled at me for being reckless like Otou-san was,"

"Reckless...?" echoed Mariko faintly.

"Yah..."

"Reckless," repeated Mariko, her voice had risen at least an octave.

With that, Mariko picked up the lamp and nailed Keitaro between the ears with the base. He didn't even blink. Mariko dropped the lamp in surprise and Keitaro caught it with a faster-than-the-eye-could-see arm movement.

"Told you it wouldn't hurt me," he replied calmly.

"But..." gasped Mariko.

"I'm a quarter inu-youkai... not much can hurt me," replied Keitaro, "A train could hit me and I might get a few bruises. Other than that, the worst injury I've gotten was when a tanuki-youkai came after the jewel and I didn't sense it soon enough, and it blind sided me when I came out of the house to investigate and all it did was scratch me up a bit,"

"Inu – _youkai?!" _cried Mariko, "you _are _crazy,"

"Sadly, no... youkai do exist, but most have concealment spells and stuff... there's even a neko-youkai who attends our school, but she's in twelfth grade and considering she's _neko _youkai, she doesn't have much interest in talking to me,"

Mariko stared at him for several seconds, obviously trying to sort out her thoughts.

"So, your dad was... half inu-youkai?" she guessed, glancing over at the picture of Kagome and Inuyasha.

Keitaro nodded.

"How did your parents meet?" asked Mariko curiously, still looking at the picture.

"It's a _really _long story... and it has everything to do with _that,_" Keitaro pointed a clawed index finger at the little, innocent-looking pink jewel hanging from its stand on his desk. Mariko raised an eyebrow.

"What, did your dad try and steal it or something?"

Keitaro choked on his sushi and gaped at her.

"How'd you know?" he gasped, wide eyed.

Mariko shifted, looking uncomfortable.

"Well, you said your mom was protecting it..." she replied defensively, "I was guessing,"

"Oh..."

"So, how did your parents meet?" repeated Mariko, moving herself over to Keitaro's bed and sitting down on it, crossing her legs in preparation for the long and interesting story that she going to hear. She patted the empty space beside her.

"Come on, Keitaro, have a seat and tell me everything,"

And he did.

* * *

Mariko was stunned when she looked at her watch next. Two hours had passed since Keitaro had sat and told her everything from his mother being dragged through the well by the Mistress centipede to his limited knowledge of his ancestry. He didn't even know the name of his youkai grandfather.

When he finished, he fixed Mariko with an apologetic look.

"That's all I know... My mother told Mama-baachan a bunch of stuff, but there is tons of things that Mama doesn't know,"

"It must have been hell to raise you then, ne?" commented Mariko.

"Yah, that's just about how she described it," he replied, grinning sheepishly. Mariko smiled and raised an eyebrow. Keitaro felt something inside him stir.

"My best friend is an Inu-hanyou... well, this is going to take some getting used to. At least I know why your sniffing the air, so won't freak me out like it used to...The only thing I worry about now is that you might be going around marking trees..."

The look of abject horror on Keitaro's face made her laugh so hard that she rolled off the bed and landed with a thumping sound on the floor. Keitaro looked down at her giggling with a grimace.

"That's.... just.... not right," he managed to say, his face twisting. Mariko managed to haul herself back up onto the bed. She reached up and scratched his ears. Keitaro managed to suppress a moan as his eyes fluttered shut in bliss, but a whine in the inu-youkai language escaped.

:gooooooooooooood:

Mariko laughed.

"You sound just like my friend Mary-Anne's dog," she explained when Keitaro shot her a puzzled look.

"Well, I'm not a quarter _dog _demon for nothing, I have a special affinity with dogs," he replied, grinning. "I sort of can talk to them..." he continued, and at Mariko's skeptical look, he elaborated, "I discovered it a few years ago, when a stray dog kept hanging around the shrine, I was able to understand what it was barking about and talk to it..."

"Sweet! Maybe it's like some sort of genetic language?" suggested Mariko. Keitaro shrugged.

"Maybe," he replied thoughtfully.

* * *

AN: The concept of the Inu-youkai language belongs to Terri Botta, author of The Lucky Ones (Which is _THE_ best Inuyasha fan fiction _EVER)_

Thanks to:

Shisuku

The Great Susinko: Hmmm.... Maybe I'll have Inuyasha show up in spirit? Thanks for the reviews :D

Eartha: He's in high school. I mixed up the ages for Japanese high schools and middle schools.

ShadowStalker2008: Your review was _very _informative.


	5. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Don't own Inuyasha. Rumiko Takahashi does. Keitaro, Mariko, Yukio and all other original characters are mine

* * *

"So, how good is your sense of smell?" asked Mariko curiously two days later as Keitaro walked her to gym class. Keitaro fixed her with a fish eyed look and raised an eyebrow.

"Are you sure you really want to know?" he asked, "I know it tells me more things than even _I _want to know usually,"

"Sure, why not?" replied Mariko, "so, tell me."

"Well…" Keitaro looked uneasy, "I can tell that Coach Genji is cheating on his wife," _I know the cycles of every female in the school, _he continued mentally,_ I know which students aren't virgins, I could tell you exactly how many of the guys masturbate. I know there are six gay students in our school; I can tell that Principal Yasukawa is pregnant. I know who broke into the sports equipment room last week and I know that people make out in that old closet next to Watanabe-sensei's classroom. _

Mariko stared at him slack jawed.

"…And just _HOW _do you know that?" she demanded loudly enough to cause people to glance at them.

"Easy, I met his wife once and whenever I'm near him, I can smell two women on him, one's his wife and the other's not, but he's definitely _been _with both of them recently," explained Keitaro matter-of-factly.

"I always knew there was something untrustworthy about him," exclaimed Mariko, scowling.

"No you didn't," replied Keitaro calmly, "you were completely surprised,"

"But…"

"It doesn't lie," said Keitaro, tapping his nose. Mariko glared at him, but he could tell she wasn't really mad. Having a good sense of smell really helped when dealing with girls, he knew when he could argue back and he knew when he had to keep his head down and his mouth shut. Mariko was dangerous when PMS-ing.

As they passed Coach Genji in the hallway outside the gym, Mariko couldn't help but give the man a disgusted glance. Keitaro and Mariko parted ways at the entrance to the girl's change room. (Keitaro could tell that there were already eight girls in there, four had boyfriends, two were having their periods, one wasn't a virgin and one had smoked weed within the last week.)

Keitaro glanced behind him and curled part of his lip, revealing one of his fangs. Yukio, who had been trying to follow him and Mariko for the past ten minutes, turned pale and started talking to a tenth grader, who was equally flustered and flattered that the popular and handsome eleventh grader was talking to _her. _

Keitaro snorted and rolled his eyes, before making his way to his own class.

* * *

"Keitaro, do you think you could go back to the Sengoku Jidai?" asked Mariko curiously as they were walking to the Higurashi shrine after school.

Keitaro shrugged.

"I've tried jumping into the well a few times, but nothing happens… I don't even know what let my parents through it… I was able to go through it as a baby, but I was always being held my either of my parents,"

Mariko nodded and her face grew pensive and her eyes darkened in thought.

After several minutes, Keitaro felt himself getting antsy. He always felt like this when he had to walk slowly when normally he could run along the rooftops, unseen.

"Hey… Mariko?" he asked.

"What?" she replied, coming out of her thoughts.

"Want to see how I get home?"

Mariko gave him a dubious look.

"Okay…" she said warily. Grinning, Keitaro grabbed her arm and pulled her into a concealed little nook behind a dumpster. Trying not to inhale the stench, he knelt and instructed Mariko to climb on. She did, rather warily.

"Okay, hold on tight… and please don't scream to loud, it hurt's my ears,"

"Scream? Why would I scream?" asked Mariko nervously.

"Just hold on tight, okay?" he replied. Mariko wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. With that, Keitaro bent his legs and sprung up to the roof the nearest building.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!"

"Oi! I told you not to scream to loudly," said Keitaro, glancing over his shoulder at Mariko as he negotiated a large, multistory car park. She had latched on so tightly to his neck that Keitaro was sure that even if he let go of her, she wouldn't have fallen off.

Mariko stopped screaming, but her blue eyes were plastered open with terror. Heeding to his friend, Keitaro slowed down a bit. Mariko relaxed a smidgen as Keitaro bounded across the rooftops toward the Higurashi shrine.

"So this is what you were doing when you fell twelve stories?" she asked over the wind. Her voice was shaking and it was significantly higher pitched than usual.

"Yah, I didn't do this very often back then though," he replied reassuringly, finally catching the smell of her anxiety and terror, most of it had been lost in the wind behind him and Keitaro had been concentrating on not screwing up a jump, because he rarely did this with extra weight on his back. Glancing ahead, he could see Goshinboku towering above the buildings surrounding the shrine. Crossing the roofs of the last few building, he leaped across the road and landed a bit harder than usual on the ground near the front door to the house.

Mariko slid off his back and was able to stand for about three seconds before her legs gave out and she collapsed. Keitaro crouched down and pulled Mariko back up into a sitting position.

"That was worse than that ride… the Hellavator," she gasped, shaking and encased in the sensation of fear.

"The Hellavator?" asked Keitaro, puzzled.

"It's a ride… My family would go on day trips up to Canada, and once we went to Playland, which is this amusement park they've got in Vancouver…The Hellavator is one of the worst rides they've got there, after the Revelation and Drop Zone…Akihiro convinced me to go on them and Ohhh…." She shuddered violently.

Keitaro, naturally, hadn't the faintest clue of what she was talking about, but he got the gist; She had been scared shitless. Keitaro felt a wave of concern and the stirrings of a deeper feeling, a welling of protective instincts that began to flow through his veins. Dropping to his knees, he pulled Mariko into a hug.

"Sorry… I didn't mean to scare you so badly," he whispered.

Mariko didn't say anything for a while, but she leaned her head on Keitaro's shoulder and he pulled her closer. She was still shaking but the feelings of the white-knuckle terror that had been eating away at her started fading and she began to relax.

"It's okay…" she managed finally, "I just forgot how scared of heights I am…"

Keitaro waited patiently for Mariko to gather herself back together and pulled his friend to her feet. It took several minutes for Mariko to be steady on her feet and she stumbled twice, only to be caught and steadied by Keitaro.

When they entered the house, they found Mama-baachan in the middle of paying bills. Large stacks of receipts were piled on the table and Mama was working feverishly at a calculator. Keitaro recognized what she was doing almost immediately; She was going over all the expenses and finances for the Shrine for the year. Mama-baachan did not take kindly to being disturbed while doing this, so Keitaro ushered Mariko up to his room and returned to duck into the fridge for some snacks and pop before heading back upstairs.

When he returned to his room, he found Mariko sitting at his desk and staring at the Shikon jewel intently. She was lost in thought and she wound and unwound a strand of her hair around one of her index fingers absently.

Keitaro couldn't help but stop at the door and watch her. The sunlight from his window shone in, illuminating the specks of dust in the air, and giving Mariko's black hair a bluish sheen that was a shade darker than her eyes.

He crossed the room and tapped her gently on the shoulder.

"Mariko?"

She jumped.

"What?" she asked, turning around to face him.

"Want some munchies?" he asked, holding up a bag of seaweed crackers. Mariko smiled and nodded. Keitaro slit the bag open and took a handful, then it to her. The two snacked in silence for several minutes.

"Keitaro?" asked Mariko hesitantly after she had finished about half her crackers.

"Yah?"

"I have a theory about how your parents got through the well,"

Keitaro's ears perked up immediately and Mariko smiled at the look of eager anticipation on his face. His golden eyes looked at her expectantly and his ears twitched.

"Well?"

"I think it was the Shikon jewel that let them through…" proposed Mariko, "I'm just guessing, but since the centipede demon could get through the well, I'm not sure…."

Keitaro thought about it and nodded in agreement.

"All the times that I've tried to go through the well, I wasn't wearing the jewel," he commented, digging through his memories.

"Why weren't you?" asked Mariko.

"It was when Yukio started tormenting me, and once, he and his gang started something while I was wearing the jewel and it turned purple because I was so angry…. Jii-chan had to spend all night praying over the thing to purify it and I haven't worn it since," explained Keitaro, grabbing another handful of crackers.

Mariko grimaced.

"That's not good," she replied, looking out of the corner of her eye at the little pink jewel hanging from the stand. _Another reason why you don't judge strength based on size, ne? Or a jewel by its colour…_

* * *

"So we're just supposed to jump in?" asked Mariko, bending over the edge of the bone eaters well. She could barely see the sandy bottom and there was nothing remotely special looking about it. It also looked very solid to her.

"That's what my parent's did… they just went in and came out the other side," replied Keitaro, leaning against the old wood of the well.

"How'd you get through then? You remember stuff from over there, didn't you?"

" I got through because I was getting carried by either Okaa-san or Otou-san, and I only remember a few things, like what people smelled like or how the air there didn't irritate my nose," answered Keitaro thoughtfully, "I remember what Shippou smelled like, and I know it's him, because the smell has youki in it,"

"Shippou?"

"He's a kitsune… I told you about what little I know of him?" replied Keitaro wryly.

"Right…I remember now…"

"So, are we going to jump in?" asked Mariko nervously, "I mean, if it doesn't work, you'll be fine, but I'll have gone either 'crunch', 'bang' _or_ 'splat'… Maybe you could go first and see if it works?"

"You have the jewel Mariko,"

"Take it then, it'd only be for a few minutes," she replied, holding out the jewel. Keitaro shied away from it and shook his head.

"No thanks, I'd rather not risk it… Besides, I think we should do it together and if you're worried about going crunch, bang or splat as you so colourfully put it, I could always carry you,"

Mariko smiled.

"Sounds like a plan, but I don't think we should do it right now," she answered, staring thoughtfully down at the darkness of the well.

"Why not?" asked Keitaro, giving Mariko a puzzled glance, his golden eyes narrowed slightly.

"Well, if we waited until the weekend, we'd have all day to either explore or sit around and mope about how it didn't work," explained Mariko as she turned to exit the well house.

"Sounds like a plan…" echoed Keitaro, following her out onto the shrine grounds.

* * *

Keitaro was up long before dawn on Saturday morning. Excitement and nervousness had wreaked havoc with his sleeping patterns. After fixing himself some ramen, he sat in Goshinboku and watched the sunrise.

First, he saw the barest hint of pink on the horizon, beyond the skyscrapers and buildings of Tokyo. Slowly streetlights were flicking off as beams of deep red, fiery orange, lavender and bright pink extended across the sky. Finally, the sun itself rose, sending out brilliant golden rays of sunlight that illuminated the sky as the age-old name of Japan floated into Keitaro's mind.

_Land of the rising sun… _

* * *

Mariko reached the Higurashi shrine at 9:28 am. She was wearing a pair of jeans and a blue American Eagle T-shirt and had a small rucksack slung on her back. A headband held her hair back and she was wearing a pair of running shoes.

After hauling herself up all 103 steps to the Sunset shrine, she paused to look around the seemingly empty grounds.

"Keitaro?" she called, looking around the grounds.

"Up here!" replied his voice.

Mariko craned her neck backwards and she could see a dark haired figure waving to her from the top of Goshinboku.

_How the hell did he get up there…? _Her brain asked before her mind had caught up with it. _I'm sure Goshinboku isn't much of a challenge after leaping buildings._

Without warning, Keitaro launched himself from the tree and Mariko screamed. Landing in a crouch beside her, the inu-hanyou raised an eyebrow and seemed to be suppressing laughter. Mariko scowled at him and he gave her a wicked grin.

"So, up to seeing if we can actually time travel?" asked Keitaro, still inwardly snickering at the look on Mariko's face.

"Yep,"

Mariko ran and got the jewel from Keitaro's bedroom and Keitaro pushed open the well house shoji. Keitaro jumped the steps and landed on the edge of the well in a crouch. Mariko peered over the wooden edge.

"It seems almost deeper and darker today," she remarked quietly, glancing at the jewel in her hands. It seemed to pulse and Mariko almost felt drawn to the well.

"Ready to try it?" asked Keitaro, his excitement evident.

Mariko nodded.

"Yep, I'm ready to jump into a well that takes you 500 years into the past, with my best friend, who happens to be part _dog_" she replied, an odd little smile on her face.

"Keh," snorted Keitaro, scowling. _I'll get her for that. _

"Sorry, I couldn't resist," replied Mariko, poking Keitaro in the side. Keitaro shot her a look that said quite clearly; _couldn't resist, my ass!_

"So are we going to jump?" asked Keitaro, jumping down.

Mariko nodded again.

"Alright," he replied and scooped her up, bridal style. Mariko squeaked at her sudden, startling change in position.

"Warn me before you do that," she ground out after her breathing had calmed down. Dark blue eyes under furrowed eyebrows glared at amused golden ones.

"Okay," replied Keitaro cheerfully as he jumped up onto the edge of the well, keeping his balance easily.

"On the count of three…" whispered Mariko.

"One…"

"Two…"

"_Three…"_

Keitaro stepped forward into nothing.

* * *

Oooo....Cliffie.

I might have mentioned some of you guys last chapter…. I can't remember…Still, better safe than sorry.

Thanks to:

Akai'zhar

Half-demon628

CleopatraK

Shadowstalker2008

The Great Susinko

Eartha

Shisuku


	6. Chapter 5

I was very depressed. Only one person reviewed my last chapter. Shout out to ShadowStalker2008.... My only reviewer. Ah well... Hopefully I shall have better luck this time around.

* * *

The two friends plummeted. Keitaro got ready to land on the bottom of the well when he saw it. The first pink and blue flashes of the time slip opening up.

"Mariko!" he cried jubilantly as they plunged into the multicoloured netherworld of the slip. Mariko cracked open her eyes and gasped as the sides of the well re-solidified around them. Keitaro set Mariko down, the two of them craned their necks back, and above them, instead of the well house ceiling, they could see clear, blue skies.

"We did it!" squealed Mariko, throwing her arms around a slightly dazed Keitaro and spinning him around. Keitaro shook off his dazed demeanor and grinned.

"Wait here, I'm going to go look around," he replied, bending his legs and springing upwards, catching the edge of the well and swinging himself over it. From the bottom of the well, he heard Mariko shout indignantly "Hey!"

Keitaro inhaled deeply, reveling in the smell of the clean, sweet air. He could smell a village to the east. The sound of birdsong in the trees and the smell of wild flowers was overwhelming and beautiful at the same time. A scrabbling noise behind him alerted him to the fact that Mariko was climbing the sides of the well.

"Keitaro, it isn't polite to leave your friend at the bottom of a well," said Mariko testily as she dragged herself over the edge of the well.

"Fuck!" she swore as the leg of her jeans caught on a sharp stone and ripped, "These are my favourite pair!"

Keitaro glanced over his shoulder with raised eyebrows. Mariko wasn't one for cursing; It was usually him who did the swearing. Mariko tumbled onto the grass and picked herself up, stalked over and smacked him soundly on the side of the head. It didn't hurt the slightest, and Keitaro said so.

"Makes me feel better," grumbled Mariko in reply. _There are serious advantages to having a guy-friend that you can hit whenever you want and it won't hurt him, _she thought wryly.

Mariko suddenly noticed how quiet and peaceful things were. She couldn't hear the roar of the cars or trucks. A bird sang and the breeze ruffled the leaves of the trees, but that was all.

"It's...so quiet..." she murmured, "Like when we'd go camping in the Rockies,"

Keitaro smiled.

"I can actually smell something other than smog," he remarked happily, inhaling deeply. The intoxicating scents of trees, flowers, fresh air and Mariko threatened to make him dizzy. In the distance, he could smell a village.

_Maybe Kaede's? The wise old miko that Mama-baachan heard so much about?_

"Let's look around," said Keitaro.

* * *

"Keiko?"

Sango watched the suddenly alert miko with curiosity. Keiko had been Kaede's apprentice for seven years before the old miko's heart had stopped beating. She was young... only twenty, but powerful and she possessed a kind soul.

_She reminds me of Kagome at times..._

The young miko's eyes were wide and disbelieving.

"I sense... I sense a great power... It just appeared... I also sense a demon, but the youki is nearly overwhelmed by the other power," whispered Keiko fervently, "I have never felt anything like it!"

Sango peered into Keiko's eyes. The miko seemed genuinely afraid.

"I'll get Miroku," she said quietly and darted out of the hut.

Minutes later, the three of them assembled just outside Keiko's hut. Kirara in her kitten form and thirteen-year-old Sachi, Sango's and Miroku's second son was there also, dressed in Taijiya armor like his mother. He was the only one of their six children that had followed Sango in her family tradition. He held his _naginata_, a long pole with a wickedly curved blade on the end and looked on silently as his parents and Keiko discussed a plan of action. Kirara was to stay in the village and protect it if anything got by them.

Like a well-trained unit, the two Taijiya, the houshi and the miko made for Inuyasha's forest as a burst of flame enveloped Kirara and she reappeared in her fire-cat form.

"It's coming from the direction of the bone eaters well," remarked Miroku, exchanging glances with Sango. Picking up the pace, Sango ran ahead.

* * *

"Look Keitaro! It's Goshinboku!" cried Mariko staring at the giant tree. Keitaro smiled and jumped up onto the roots. He examined the bark closely.

"What are you doing?"

"Looking for the mark... aha, here it is..." he replied, tapping a section of the bark with one of his claws. Mariko hauled herself up the roots and peered at the spot. There was a small hole in the bark, almost a scar.

"It's where Kikyou's arrow sealed my father for fifty years," he explained, still staring at the mark with a strange expression, "And it's where my mother found him."

The wind changed direction and Keitaro jumped. Four scents rode on that wind, and they were close. Two seemed slightly familiar, but Keitaro could not place them. They smelled dangerous and he could feel the spiritual power emanating from the group.

"What is it Keitaro?" asked Mariko, noticing the change in his mood. She had put the Shikon jewel necklace around her neck and tucked it into her shirt.

"We've got company... and I don't think they want to welcome us judging from the miko they've got with them...She smells like she's getting ready to do some purifying,"

Mariko paled.

"Should we hide?"

"You should, but it's pointless for me, the miko could sense my youki," replied Keitaro, watching the bushes around the clearing warily. _They are really close..._

"Don't move _youkai!_" a clear voice echoed across the clearing as a young woman in the traditional red and white miko's garb stepped out from behind a tree and leveled a bow at the pair of them.

_Shit..._

From behind two other trees, three more people came out. A man in monk's robes and a woman in Taijiya armor. There was a boy, also in armor, holding a nasty looking_ naginata _with practiced ease. Keitaro could smell that the woman and the monk were husband and wife.

_Could it be? Sango?_ _Miroku?_

Mariko shrank behind him and Keitaro stared at his parent's friends, too stunned to speak.

"Why are you here demon?" demanded the miko, her eyes narrowed, "Why do you not run or defend yourself?"

Keitaro ignored her and gazed at the Taijiya and houshi that his parents had known and loved. Did they even recognize him? Obviously not, from the looks they were giving him. The boy smelled of fear.

_What do I do?_

"She asked you a question, demon! Answer it!" snarled Sango, hefting hiraikotsu. Keitaro still could not bring himself to say anything. They had him cold.

"Keitaro...?" whispered Mariko fearfully, starting to peer over his shoulder. Keitaro reached back and held her behind him, shaking his head. There was no way he was going to let her get hurt.

"Who are you?!" demanded the miko once more, pulling the bowstring tighter. Keitaro gulped nervously. He _really _didn't want to end up like his father did at the hands of an angry miko. Keitaro glanced at the well, just visible through the bushes, judging the distance to be about sixteen metres.

The miko let the arrow fly.

In one smooth motion, Keitaro shoved Mariko out of the way and ducked, screaming as the arrow's purifying energy razed his back. He could feel his shirt burning and the blisters starting to rise on his back as he staggered and fell forward.

"Keitaro!" screamed Mariko, scrambling towards him as he lay curled on the ground, groaning and shaking. "Keitaro...?" she whispered, "Say something...please..."

"Unngh...hurts..." he mumbled, his golden eyes clouded and he continued to shake and shudder. The burning smell from his back made Mariko's stomach turn and she regretted not taking a first aid course.

"What the hell did you do to him?!" she cried, jumping to her feet and rounding on the miko angrily, "He didn't do anything to you and he wasn't going too!"

Silence greeted her.

The look of stunned horror on the Taijiya's face and how the Houshi was suddenly sheet white and using his staff to hold himself upright tipped her off that something was amiss. The miko was the most interesting though, when it came to came to facial expressions. Mariko had never seen a completely green face before. The younger boy stood there looking nervous as his eyes darted from Keitaro's prone form, to her, to the miko, to the monk and back again.

"Well?? Isn't someone going to explain to me WHY YOU DID THAT THING WITH YOUR ARROW AND BURNED MY BEST FRIEND??"

Mariko's outburst triggered something in the Taijiya. "Sachi, run and get several jugs of cold water from the stream and leave them at Keiko's hut," she said quietly. The boy nodded and ran off.

The miko had lowered her bow and held it at her side, her face still slightly green.

"I am sorry..." she said in a horrified whisper. Mariko glanced behind her and noticed that the arrow had imbedded itself in the wood of the tree less than two inches from the scar left by Kikyou's arrow, before turning back to the miko.

"What did you do to him?" She demanded, stepping sideways to shield him from the Taijiya, who had begun to move forward.

"She....tried to purify me..." came a hoarse whisper from behind her. Keitaro was still curled on the ground, shaking and trying to regain his senses. "I always...wondered if purifying would affect me... because of my human blood... but... I guess... my youkai blood was strong enough..." he mumbled between ragged breaths.

He tilted his head slightly, peering through dull eyes at the Taijiya, whose eyes were brimming with tears.

"Sango..." he said softly, before turning his gaze on the monk, "Miroku..."

The miko stepped forward and Mariko glared at her. Keiko knew that if looks could kill, she would have been drawn and quartered.

"I can heal the wounds...that I inflicted," said Keiko quietly. Still giving her a suspicious look, Mariko stepped aside. Kneeling in next to the boy, she pressed two fingers to his forehead.

"Sleep," she murmured, "For you shall heal only then,"

Keitaro sighed as a blanket of warm darkness enveloped him.

* * *

Keitaro woke up lying on his stomach. His shirt was gone and the pain on his back had dulled somewhat. He was lying alone in the miko's hut and from the feel of it; a poultice had been applied to his back.

He could smell Mariko not too far away. She was probably just outside the hut, because he could hear her voice. She was talking with another girl, one of Sango and Miroku's children, from the smell of it.

"Hello?" he called out.

Mariko stuck her head in the door and smiled.

"You okay?" she asked. Keitaro shrugged then winced as the motion pulled the skin on his back.

"I've been better," he muttered darkly, "Damn miko."

Another girl poked her head in the door, obviously the owner of the other voice that Keitaro had heard talking. She was about two inches shorter than Mariko and slender, with her long hair pulled back by what looked like this era's version of a bandanna. She was wearing a red yukata and sandals and looked to be a year or two younger than both him and Mariko.

"Hi," she said shyly, smiling, "I'm Miaka,"

"Pleased to meet you, I'd either shake your hand or bow if I was standing up, but I am getting the impression from this barrier spell that I just discovered that I'm not supposed to move," replied Keitaro sardonically, "by the way, I'm Higurashi Keitaro."

Mariko laughed and Miaka smiled nervously. Keitaro scowled at them.

"Apparently Keitaro, your dad didn't like staying in one place when he was injured, so Sango had the miko put that spell on you to keep you still because she wasn't sure if you had turned out like Inuyasha or not," replied Mariko, still giggling.

Keitaro raised an eyebrow.

"Why would I _want_ to move?" he demanded caustically, "This burn hurts like a bitch,"

"At least you admit that you're in pain," answered Mariko, grinning. Miaka nodded in agreement. "I would hear stories that Inuyasha would never admit he was in pain," said the younger girl quietly, "Even when he had a hole in his stomach".

"And admit it Keitaro, you _do _want to move,"

"Of course I do! It gets extremely boring lying here, but all I'd like to do is sit up...I'm not stupid and I know something that hurts this much has to be kept moderately still in order to heal,"

"Oh? Define 'moderately still' Keitaro,"

"Not getting into fights or jumping buildings," he replied seriously.

"You've got a lot more common sense than your father did if that's the case," called a voice. Both girls turned around to see who was coming. Keitaro could tell it was Miroku by smell and the signature that his spiritual power made.

"Chichi-ue," greeted Miaka as Miroku approached the hut. Keitaro could just see the monk out of the corner of his eye as he poked his head into the hut.

"Hello Keitaro, last time I saw you, you were about this big," Miroku was all smiles as he held his hands about a foot and a bit apart. Keitaro laughed.

"I've grown a bit since then," he remarked wryly, the his face took on a pleading expression, "Could you let me sit up? I'm not going to do anything crazy,"

Miroku gave him a thoughtful look and Keitaro gave him his best begging puppy-dog-eyes.

"Oh, alright, it's the least I can do, but if you do anything stupid, I'll seal you so you can't move a muscle,"

The Houshi knelt next to Keitaro and said a whispered spell. Instantly, he fell the barrier of magical energy melt away. Slowly, he pushed himself up and turned around so he was facing forwards.

"Arigato Miroku-san!" said Keitaro happily as he stretched his muscles gingerly. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Miaka eyeing his torso with an interested expression. He decided not to mention it as Mariko came into the hut and sat beside him, cross-legged.

"'Ello partner," she drawled in English, earning strange looks from Miaka and Miroku. The latter rolled his eyes and smiled as he exited the hut.

Keitaro laughed and shook his head.

"What did you say?" asked Miaka curiously, kneeling on the floor next to Mariko, the differences and similarities between the two girls immediately obvious. Mariko's casual modern grace and Miaka's dainty elegance seemed to contrast yet compliment each other.

"I said 'Hello partner,' It's an English term... famous in those old country westerns," explained Mariko. Miaka just looked confused.

"Mariko, this is the 1500's, they don't know about English yet or have country westerns," said Keitaro pointedly.

"Right..." replied Mariko, blushing, "I forgot,"

"English...?" said Miaka, thinking hard, "I remember Okaa-san once said that Lady Kagome could speak an odd language called English, but she wasn't very good at it,"

"Neither am I... Mariko is the only thing between me and failing the damned course," he replied, chuckling. He stopped and gazed out the open door of the hut, and sniffed the air.

"I have this sudden urge to sit outside," he commented, staring out at the blue sky and the small, yet busy village. Slowly, he stood with a bit of help from Mariko and the trio went to sit on the steps outside Keiko's hut.

Review!!!! It's a blue shiny button!!!! Push it!


	7. Chapter 6

Hello all!

 My beta was very insistent that I change one part of this chapter because he didn't like the sentence structure and what not. I didn't change it and I was wondering if any of you could spot it.

* * *

"And that's Kenji, he's the blacksmith.... He always gets drunk on sake," said Miaka, pointing to a hunched, bearded man with rough hands as he passed the hut.

"Keh, I could smell the alcohol on him," commented Keitaro, glaring disapprovingly at the man. For the last twenty minutes, Miaka had kept a running commentary on the villagers who were passing them, their names, what they did and little tidbits of gossip about their lives. Her voice was quiet, lyrical and carefully moderated.

Mariko was scribbling away in a little flip notebook that had been in her backpack. Oddly enough, she was writing in English instead of Japanese. When Keitaro asked her about it, she mumbled something about it being easier after spending most of your life in America.

"This will be perfect for my Japanese history project... I picked the Sengoku Jidai, because you said that's where the well takes you," She said a few minutes later, still scribbling.

Keitaro nodded as he noticed the miko returning. Mariko noticed a low growl in her friend's throat and placed a calming hand on his shoulder.

"Cool it boy... She already got a sound tongue lashing from me about what she did and believe me, she's sorry."

Keitaro cast a wary look at his friend. From tales that Mama-baachan and Souta had told him, Mariko rivaled (and probably surpassed) Kagome in what Souta described as 'Scariness'. While none of her yelling had actually been directed at him, Keitaro had witnessed enough of it to know that if she turned her voice on him, he would shrink from being 5'10" to about the size of a 2 year old pup.

* * *

Keiko frowned when she saw Keitaro, Mariko and Miaka sitting on the step outside her hut. The hanyou boy was shirtless and clad in the odd, heavy trousers that he and the blue-eyed girl both wore. Blue eyes. Keiko had never seen anyone save a few demons with eyes like the girl's were. Thorough scrutiny of Mariko's aura had proved that she did not possess any youkai blood, or youki of any sort. How could someone that did not have any demon heritage have blue eyes? 

She also possessed the Shikon jewel, wearing it on a necklace around her neck, explaining that Keitaro could not hold it any longer. Keiko was surprised to learn that despite the girl's lack of any sort of miko powers, she did not taint or affect the nearly finished jewel.

"Hello Keiko-sama!" called Miaka, smiling. Mariko had a hand on Keitaro's shoulder and was regarding her neutrally while Keitaro's golden eyes were narrowed in distrust and anger. Keiko could see some of the shiny and blistering burn on his back and on the shoulder that did not have Mariko's hand on it and her stomach gave a twinge of guilt.

She had injured and could have killed the only son of Inuyasha and Lady Kagome. Purification was one of the only wounds that took the youkai more that a few days to recover from, if they survived it at all. She hoped that Keitaro's human blood would be enough to help him heal quickly. She also hoped he did not have the tendency to go running off while still injured as she had heard his father did.

Inuyasha had done nothing but good for the village as its protector in the seven years before his death at the claws of the Ryu-youkai, while Lady Kagome had been one of the most powerful miko's in Musashi country and a skilled healer.

"Good day Miaka," answered Keiko as she reached the steps of the hut. Mariko gave her a nod and Keitaro said nothing at all. He just glared. Keiko couldn't really blame him. She wondered for a few seconds about who had disabled her barrier spell then realized that the only other person in the village capable of doing so was Miroku.

"Keitaro-san, I must reapply the burn salve," said Keiko, returning the inu-hanyou's glare with a steady gaze.

* * *

Keitaro jumped slightly at being addressed so politely. 

"Fine," he muttered. The pain had started to become sharper. The miko nodded and stepped into the hut, and returned with a jar that reeked of the stuff on his back. Mariko, probably sensing that he didn't want to be touched by the miko, took the jar from Keiko and motioned for him to turn slightly so she could apply it properly.

"I must go tend to old Nyoko," said the miko quietly, directing her speech more at Miaka rather than at either him or Mariko. Then she turned and made her way to one of the huts on the far side of the village, her red hakama billowing out behind her as she strode away.

Mariko pried off the lid of the jar and began to spread the stuff on his back. It smelled like butter mixed with something noxious. If the stuff smelled bad to her, she didn't want to know what it smelled like to Keitaro with his sensitive nose. He wasn't complaining, but she saw his nose scrunch up as soon as she had opened the jar.

"Awww.... Is poor Keitaro and his doggy nose smelling something nasty?" she teased.

"Shut up," he shot back, rolling his golden eyes. Mariko could see the ghost of a grin on his face.

Miaka suddenly stood up, startling the pair from the future. She had the wide-eyed look of someone who had just remembered something important.

"I must go help Okaa-san with chores and dinner," she said quickly. Keitaro glanced at the sky and noticed that the sun was not exactly overhead.

"Mariko.... Just how long was I out?" he asked, peering over his shoulder at the blue eyed girl.

"For about eight hours," she remarked after checking her watch, "You needed the rest... From what Keiko told me, purifying can be hard to heal for a demon, but I think all your human blood that saved you,"

Keitaro nodded.

"I understand, but I'm not thrilled," he remarked, his ears twitching. To distract himself from the horrible scent of the salve, he focused identifying the familiar scents around him. Things in the village smelled the same, despite the fact that they were sixteen years older than they were when he first smelled them.

"What are you sniffing for?" asked Mariko, taking notice of her friend's sharp inhalations.

"I'm just looking for scents that I know... I may have been a baby when I was last here, but nearly everything smells the same... fresh and clean," replied Keitaro reverently, taking in another deep breath.

"Sango invited us for dinner in her hut, She said that she had something that she wanted to give you," commented Mariko, replacing the lid on the salve jar.

"Oh?" said Keitaro interestedly, his ears pricking up.

"She didn't say what it was,"

"When does she want us to show up?"

"She said she'd send someone named Rika... I'm guessing that's one of her daughters..."

Keitaro nodded. Rika was one of the names that he remembered. Mama-baachan knew all about Sango and Miroku's first child, a girl three years his senior. Keitaro could remember her scent, which was yet another medley of her parents', but Rika's had more of Sango's influence than Miroku's. He idly wondered what she looked like now.

He soon found out.

Rika's scent wafted in sensing range about a minute before he saw her. His ears pricked up and Mariko raised a questioning eyebrow.

"She coming,"

"Oh... How far away is she?"

Keitaro shrugged and stood.

"I suppose my T-shirt was destroyed?" he asked, peering inside the hut.

"Yep, You'll have to go around shirtless," said Mariko slyly, poking him, "but the cold won't bother you ne?"

Keitaro shook his head, an amused expression on his face. "Me? Keitaro Higurashi, hanyou extraordinaire? Cold? It might happen when Hell freezes over," he said dramatically, throwing his arms wide.

"Damn, where did you get an overblown ego?" asked Mariko, laughing.

Keitaro gave her a roguish grin.

"Apparently, I inherited it," he replied, winking. Mariko whacked him upside the head, nailing one of his ears perfectly.

"Ouch! Whatdya do that for?" he cried, backing away, shielding his ears.

"To bring you down a few pegs," she remarked, smiling innocently. He scowled at her for a few seconds, then he turned and waved to a tall girl who had just appeared from behind one of the huts. The girl waved back and Mariko studied her closely. She was the spitting image of Sango, right down to the expression of calm confidence.

"Keitaro-kun! It has been so long since I last you... you were so small then!" she said as she reached him, smiling broadly.

Mariko grinned inwardly when she saw one of Keitaro's ears twitch in annoyance, but his smile didn't fade.

"Hello Rika-chan, same to you...." he said, grinning. The older girl laughed and motioned for them to follow her.

"Okaa-san has made a large dinner for us all, in celebration of your arrival... I have never seen her cook so much, even for my brothers..."

* * *

The hut that Miroku, Sango and their children possessed was larger then most and had four rooms, one larger dining room and three small bedrooms and Sango had indeed cooked a large dinner. Keitaro felt that it could have been more accurately called a feast and he felt a little uncomfortable that Sango had gone to so much trouble. 

The food was quite good though. Sango was an excellent cook.

The entire family sat around the low table, which barely fit all ten of them. Miroku and Sango sat at both ends of the table, while Keitaro had taken the spot on Sango's right with Rika sitting on his other side. Across from him sat Mariko, and beside her sat Miaka. Next to Miaka was Masuhiro, who was fourteen and the eldest boy of the family. Naomi, the baby of the family at ten, sat on Rika's other side and the two spots nearest to Miroku were filled by Sachi, who was thirteen and Kohaku, who was twelve and named after Sango's long deceased younger brother. Sitting near the table with it's own bowl of food was a small, two tailed white and black youkai kitten with a star on its forehead.

The meal was silent, as was tradition. It obviously made Mariko uncomfortable, but Keitaro had been to dinner at her house and was surprised to learn that her family often talked and discussed their days over dinner. He supposed that was the way things usually were in America.

As dinner was wrapping up, Sango disappeared into hers and Miroku's bedroom for a few moments before returning with a small drawstring bag.

"Keitaro, this is something that belonged to your father..." she said quietly, handing him the bag.

"Thanks," he said, taking the bag. Pulling it open, he reached and pulled out a necklace made of purple beads and teeth. Keitaro stared at it for a few seconds, trying to place its familiarity and then it hit him. A mental flash of the picture of his parents on his dresser made him remember where he had seen them.

_Otou-san's prayer beads..._

Keitaro was unable to say anything. He just gazed at the beads mutely, overwhelmed with emotion. A few tears welled up in his eyes, but he blinked them back forcefully.

"Arigatou..." He managed to say.

"The subduing spell was nullified when your father died, but after Tetsussaiga, these beads were one of Inuyasha's most prized possessions," explained Sango, taking them and slipping the beads over his head.

"Osuwari!" cried Naomi gleefully. Keitaro flinched as the rest of the table erupted in laughter.

"Good thing the spell's gone," he murmured wryly, holding the beads away from his neck so that he could look at them.

"I remember when I tried to use the spell on your father... it didn't work, but his expression was downright priceless," commented Sango, beginning to stack the earthenware bowls.

Naomi and Miaka scurried after her in order to help and Rika filled the youkai kitten's dish with some of the leftovers, which it devoured eagerly.

"What is its name?" asked Keitaro curiously.

"This is Kirara, she's a fire cat" replied Rika, stroking the kitten's fur, "Okaa-san has had her since she was young,"

"Ah," replied Keitaro, reaching out to let the kitten sniff his hand. Kirara mewed and nuzzled it affectionately.

"She recognizes you," said the older girl, "Okaa-san said that Kirara looked after the both of us sometimes when we were little,"

"I kind of recognize her smell, its sort of always mixed in with Sango's in my memories," commented Keitaro, smiling slightly as the firecat hopped into his lap and settled herself in quite comfortably.

* * *

Most of the evening was devoted to Miroku and Sango telling stories about Kagome and Inuyasha and the shard hunts. They also told him more about Shippou, the kitsune kit that his mother had adopted and whom neither of them had seen in over a decade. 

"His grief was more profound than ours," murmured Sango softly, "He couldn't follow Kagome through the well and because of that, he lost two sets of parents. He stayed with Kaede until she died, but he's been gone since then, and we have no idea what happened to him,"

Keitaro felt a strange twinge of sadness for what for the kitsune who had been as good as his brother.

* * *

When Keitaro helped Mariko clamber out of the well in the modern era, Mariko suddenly turned around and just stared down into the wells depths. 

"Today was the coolest day in my entire _life!"_ she enthused, grinning. Keitaro smiled a close-lipped smile and nodded in agreement.

"Well, as long as you don't count me nearly being purified, but otherwise, yah, really cool day," he replied, grinning slightly as he reached up to touch the prayer beads around his neck.

Mariko gave him a warm smile.

"You were able to smell something besides toxic air," she commented and Keitaro's grin widened a few more teeth. Mariko could easily see his fangs now, and she realized that she had never seen him smile like that. Smirks and small smiles were more his style and Mariko wondered if he smiled like that in order to conceal the dangerous looking canines.

_His fangs would have been another bullet in Nishimura's arsenal, _She thought as they exited the well house and made their way across the shrine's moonlit grounds.

Checking her watch, she noted that it was after ten thirty. She had told her mother she would be home at around eleven at the absolute latest. They slid open the shoji for the house and entered the house.

Mama Higurashi stuck her head out of the kitchen.

"Where have you been Keitaro?" she asked, her voice suspicious.

Mariko shot a glance at her friend.

"You didn't tell her?"

Keitaro's ears flattened in remorse, giving his best friend the answer she needed. Mama stalked towards her grandson, gripping him by the shoulders and giving him a good shake.

"Where did you go?" she demanded.

Keitaro ducked his head and flashed his neck. Mariko doubted that Mama Higurashi noticed his inu-youkai signs of submission. She noticed the strand of beads around his neck however.

"You went back,..." whispered Mama, paling slightly as she stared at the beads.

Wordlessly Keitaro nodded, glancing up at his grandmother's eyes, waiting for the rebuke. Instead, Mama hugged him tightly and for once, he didn't struggle to get away. Mariko smiled at the moment between the two.

"I think you should take Mariko home Keitaro, it's not the best time of day for young women to be walking the streets of Tokyo alone," remarked Mama as she let go of her grandson and steered him around so that he was facing the door. Keitaro gave her an apologetic look and beckoned her to follow.

Mariko felt her stomach lurch at what she knew was going to be a very fast, nauseating and downright scary ride as she followed him outside.

Crouching down, he let her climb on and frowned as the thick smell of fear filled his nostrils.

"Mariko, I won't let you fall, okay?" he said, rising up so that he was standing and she was straddling his back.

"Just close your eyes and hold on tightly if you need to," Mariko squeezed her eyes shut as he coiled his legs and sprung up onto the roof of the house. The wind whistled by her ears and played with her hair and the only thing that she could feel was the occasional bump as Keitaro sprung off various buildings.

Mariko shrieked as the two of them suddenly fell into a steep drop. Her eyes were still squeezed shut, but her stomach felt as though it had been shoved up her throat. The bump and clatter of Keitaro landing on a what must have been a fire escape was a little more jarring than usual before he took off again.

"Sorry," She heard Keitaro say, before his voice was snatched away by the wind, "I mis-calculated". In reply, she clung to him tighter. As he continued to bound his way across Tokyo. After a minute of smooth going, Mariko cracked her eyes open. The sight that met her eyes was one that took her breath away.

The smog that hung over the city during the day had transformed into an ethereal aura that glowed above the cityscape like a halo. Streets full of cars and people blew by as Keitaro smoothly lept from building to building. He gripped her legs firmly; being careful not to scratch her with his claws and Mariko suddenly understood that he would never drop her.

For the first time, Mariko began to appreciate Tokyo and she knew that she would never be scared of whatever abilities Keitaro possessed or what he could do.

He set her down in the alley near her apartment and walked her to the door.

"See you at school Mariko," he said with a grin, "We should go back next weekend," and with that, he disappeared into the shadows.

* * *

And to my reviewers!

Katgome-chan: Thank you! beams Well... Now you know how Mama feels...

Punk

Shadowstalker2008

Eartha


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Mariko woke up the next morning with the feeling that something was off. Cracking open her eyes, she shrieked at the sight of a pair of golden eyes hovering above her face, but the sound was muffled by a hand being clamped over her mouth.

"Keitaro, don't _DO _that! How did you get in here?" she hissed after he had let her go. The inu-hanyou was already in his school uniform and his backpack was on the floor near her bed. Mariko noticed that he was still wearing Inuyasha's prayer beads.

"Akihiro's window was open," he replied, grinning. Then suddenly, his grin disappeared, and he turned to face the door, taking a careful sniff and training his ears forward.

"Shit…" he breathed.

"What is it?" asked Mariko, but then she heard her mother's feet padding down the hall and the doorknob started to turn. Keitaro dived over her bed and started fumbling with the window. He popped open the catch with surprising ease (Neither Mariko, nor her father had been able to budge it,) and was climbing out the open window when Mrs. Fujita pushed open the door.

"Time to get up Mari-" she sang before her eyes finally focused on what was going on.

"What the hell?!" she cried in English, before her eyes narrowed with suspicion. Mariko lept out of bed to do damage control, before her mother got any really bad ideas.

"Mom! Keitaro didn't stay the night! He um…just showed up this morning… woke me up!"

"Was just leaving…" supplied Keitaro at the same time, still sitting on the sill.

"From the window? Have you got a death wish boy?" demanded Mrs. Fujita. Keitaro shook his head, then swore inwardly, as Mrs. Fujita's eyes suddenly were riveted on the top of his head, or more accurately, on his ears. He wasn't wearing his baseball cap.

"How did you get into the apartment?" she asked, her voice hard.

"Akihiro's window," replied Keitaro, his ears flattening.

"Get yourself off that sill young man! The both of you have _A LOT _of explaining to do," before turning and stalking out of the room. Keitaro meekly pulled his legs in and went to stand outside the room so that Mariko could have some privacy to get dressed. Ten minutes later, they both sat down at the kitchen table where a sleepy eyed Akihiro joined them.

It didn't take long for the eleven year old boy to notice Keitaro's ears.

"Whoa! Are those dog ears _real?" _he exclaimed.

Keitaro nodded curtly in reply as Mrs. Fujita plunked down three plates of bacon and eggs in front of them. Taking a seat across from Keitaro, she gave him a long searching look. Mariko and Akihiro began to silently eat their breakfast.

"So those ears are why you've been wearing a baseball cap every time you came here?" she said. Keitaro nodded, not wanting to spark too much of an outburst from Mariko's mother, who was starting to resemble a boiling teakettle.

"And you seemed to think you could climb out my daughter's window, which is _fourteen _stories up and has no ledges or fire escapes near it?" Keitaro nodded seriously again. Mrs. Fujita glared at him, her blue eyes narrowing. She was obviously wondering why she let this lunatic spend time with her daughter.

"How did you get in?" she asked again, daring him to lie.

"Akihiro's window… It was open…" explained Keitaro, "I saw that it was open and I figured, why not?"

Mrs. Fujita's eyes narrowed until she seemed to be squinting. Keitaro her suspicion and distrust was starting to make him feel ever so slightly ill.

"You're lying," she announced.

"No," replied Keitaro calmly.

"He's not lying mom… Keitaro… is…well…um…" Mariko trailed off.

"What she's trying to say is that my ears are not some random genetic birth defect, Mrs. Fujita, I'm a quarter dog demon," he said abruptly. Whatever Anna-Marie Fujita had been expecting as an explanation, it had not been that.

"Come again?" she said blankly just as Akihiro exclaimed "Dog _demon? _That is SO cool! Wait until I tell Toshi and Genji about _that!"_

Mariko rounded on her brother before Keitaro could say a word.

"You're not going to tell Toshi or Genji _ANYTHING _about Keitaro being part inu-youkai, got that? If he doesn't shred you, I'll do it myself!" Akihiro gulped and cast Keitaro a wide-eyed look as he scootched his chair away a few inches. Keitaro sighed and his ears drooped slightly.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to shred you, but please don't say anything," he told the boy, who nodded mutely.

"Dog demon…?" Mariko's mother managed to say staring at him. She didn't seem to have noticed the exchange between her children.

"Yes, dog demon… my father was a hanyou and how he met my mother is kind of a long story, which is too long to tell right now, because school starts in fifteen minutes and unless I give her a ride, it takes Mariko twenty minutes to walk to school," replied Keitaro, glancing at the clock on the wall.

Both Mariko and Mrs. Fujita looked at the clock as though they had never seen one before and then Mariko began to eat faster. She then disappeared into the bathroom to brush her teeth.

Minutes later, they departed from the roof of Mariko's building and were bounding across the rooftops. Mariko still held on tightly, but the impulse to scream her head off had disappeared.

* * *

When they walked into English class, the first thing that Keitaro noticed was that Yukio wasn't in class, which struck him as odd, because he had smelled the other boy in one of the school's hallways.

It wasn't until halfway through class that Keitaro smelled something rather ominous coming down the hallway.

Gunpowder.

There was a knock on the door and Mr. Baker went to open it. Standing there were two uniformed police officers.

"Is there a Higurashi Keitaro in this class?" asked the tallest one, an older man with a dark face and streaks of grey in his hair. All eyes turned from the officers to him on a dime. Nervously, Keitaro raised his hand.

"We would like you to come with us,"

Gasps rippled through the classroom and whispering erupted. Mariko shot him a fearful, wide-eyed look. _What did you do? _She mouthed. Keitaro shrugged in reply, but he had an odd feeling in the pit of his stomach that Yukio had something to do with this.

Slowly, Keitaro stood up and walked to the door, pulling his baseball cap lower over his ears out of nervous habit. He tried to come up with reasons why the police would want to take him anywhere. Then it suddenly occurred to him that Nishimura might have squealed and knowing the lying bastard, he had probably exaggerated.

Keitaro grimaced when one of the younger cops, a short, skinny guy with halitosis, grabbed him roughly, spun him around and slapped a pair of handcuffs on.

_Yep, He exaggerated… _

The three officers led him out of the classroom and patted him down. Thankfully, none of them thought to bother with his hat. When the older cop came closer, Keitaro noticed something odd about his scent, or more, something that was odd about a female someone who was close to this guy. _His mate is a bat hanyou… _

"Why the funny look, boy?" demanded the man, glaring at him as they led him along the hallways towards the school office.

"Nothing," replied Keitaro, being careful to keep his tone of voice reasonably pleasant. If he wanted to get out of this okay, he had to make sure that he didn't come across as a rude delinquent or he might as well just jump out of the frying pan into the roaring fire.

They led him to Principal Yasukawa's office, and Keitaro could smell the principal, along with Nishimura, his parents and a forth person, who was revealed to be another police officer when the door was pushed open.

Keitaro was amused to note that the thirty-something principal had finally wised up about her own situation and was now wearing a maternity dress. He refrained from smirking however.

Instead, he took time to study Yukio's parents. Mr. Nishimura was a handsome man of about forty wearing a navy business suit. His hair was lighter than most and the emotion that Keitaro smelled on him was concern. Yukio's mother was a tall, slender woman with short hair and a power suit. She looked and smelled ready to throw down. Literally.

Yukio was sitting on his father's right side and looked very pleased with himself. Keitaro fought the urge to growl at him.

Keitaro was pushed into a chair without much ceremony and the oldest cop stood in front of him, trying to look menacing. He wasn't very successful. Mariko could be much scarier. Keitaro raised an eyebrow.

"Higurashi Keitaro," started the older policeman, "Do you know why you're here?"

"I have a pretty good idea," replied Keitaro, shifting in the chair. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed both of Yukio's parents giving him strange looks.

"Are you admitting that you threatened to kill young Mr. Nishimura over there?" asked the officer.

"No. I said I was capable of killing him, but I wouldn't and that he was damn lucky that I have a conscience," He replied, scowling at the other boy. "I know a few people who would have shredded him on the spot if they'd have had to put up with what I've had to put up with from him."

As one, all the police officers turned to look at Yukio, who bristled at his comment.

"Prove it. Prove that I've done anything to you,"

"Go ask Baker-sensei, He's seen some of the stuff that you've pulled," Keitaro retorted.

"That was exposing you for the freak of nature that you are!"

"I'm not a freak of nature,"

"You're not even fucking_ human_!" shouted Yukio, jumping to his feet and making a lunge for his baseball cap. Keitaro threw his arms up to block him instinctively, then swore as everyone in the room, save Yukio and the senior officer, gasped. He had broken the handcuffs. _Fuck! What better proof do they need?_

"See?! _See?!!" _cried Yukio, "He's not human! No human could do that!"

Keitaro gritted his teeth and slid his hands out of the cuffs. It left a few abrasion marks on his skin, but those would heal up quickly. _Might as well take these damn things off. _

"Sorry about that," he apologized, handing the cuffs to the junior officer with halitosis. The officer stared at the cuffs with wonderment for a few seconds, then silently put them on the desk.

The older officer didn't seem particularly ruffled by his strength. Keitaro wondered if his hanyou mate had given him some ability to sense youki. Yukio's mother was staring at him with a look of mixed shock and fear in her expression, but his father was different. Instead, he had a look of recognition on his face.

"What's wrong, Nishimura-san?" Keitaro asked him, struggling to keep his voice from getting snarky.

"Was your mother… by any chance… named Kagome?" he asked quietly, his voice shaking slightly.

Keitaro's eyebrows shot up in surprise and he nodded. Mr. Nishimura choked audibly. Keitaro frowned.

"Why do you want to know?"

"I knew your mother, we were friends in middle school, but we kind of drifted apart when we started going to different high schools… My name is Houjou," replied Mr. Nishimura.

Keitaro recognized the name from one of his mother's photo albums and a few of Mama-baachan's stories. He found it very hard to believe that Yukio's father had been a friend of his mother.

"How is Kagome?" asked Houjou eagerly. Yukio was staring at his father with something akin to horror.

"She's dead," answered Keitaro quietly, "So is Otou-san, I live at the shrine with Mama-baachan." Houjou reacted as though he had been slapped.

"Kagome…is dead? When did this happen?" demanded Yukio's father.

"When I was a baby, she got attacked in the well-house by something and fell into the well and broke her neck," feeding them the lie that Mama-baachan had conceived. Houjou-san hung his head. Both Yukio's mother and Yukio were staring at him.

"Who was your father?" asked Houjou curiously.

"His name was Inuyasha, he and my mother met when she was fifteen, and they were together until he died, which was a month before Okaa-san did – in a motorcycle accident," answered Keitaro, wincing at the lies. Glancing at Yukio, he noted that the other boy had a very sinister grin on his face. That was not good.

"Inuyasha you say…?" said Houjou thoughtfully; "I think I met him once… Silver hair, red outfit and always wears a baseball cap?"

Keitaro nodded, his jaw clenching slightly. Yukio's expression was making him nervous.

"You're father's name was Inuyasha? Doesn't that mean dog demon?" demanded Yukio harshly, before his father could say anything else.

"Yah, what of it?" asked Keitaro, trying to act like he wasn't ready to jump out of his chair and throttle Yukio. The three police officers, Principal Yasukawa and Yukio's mother were glancing at each other nervously.

Yukio put two and two together faster than it had taken Keitaro to break the handcuffs.

"You're a youkai!" he accused. Everyone in the room, save the eldest police officer reacted with surprise. Keitaro felt his insides go cold and numb. Houjou glanced back and forth between his son and the other teenage boy.

"I knew it!" continued Yukio, "there's no way that any birth defect could have given you those fucking ears. As for how fast you move, well, that explains everything! You're some sort of heathen! Why hasn't a fucking priest had a go at you yet! You need to be purified out of existence,"

Keitaro closed his eyes and struggled to reign in his anger and his fear. In less than half an hour, his life had fallen apart. Yukio continued to rant, but Keitaro couldn't listen anymore. Not without losing it.

"Be quiet young man," said a sharp voice.

Keitaro's eyes snapped open and Yukio's mouth stopped moving in mid-word. The older police officer was glaring at Yukio with disgust written all over his face.

"Do not think that you know anything about youkai, boy!" hissed the officer. "There are more of them than you'd ever dream of and they are not the forgiving type when their secrets are exposed," Keitaro got the impression that the officer spoke from experience. At least he had one person on his side.

The other adults in the room seemed stunned into silence.

"I have seen enough already, there will be no arrests made today, but if I hear anything about you harassing Higurashi, I will arrest you – for your own safety!" he continued, glaring at Yukio. Keitaro frowned.

"What's to stop him from spreading rumors?" he asked.

"He won't if he knows what's best for him," said the officer gruffly, giving Yukio a look that could have melted lead. Keitaro knew this was his cue to give Nishimura some sort of threatening look and gesture, but for some reason, he didn't want to. It was taking advantage of his youkai heritage if he did that.

_If that bastard hates demons so much, I'll beat him on human terms…If he calls a fucking priest on me though, I'll ask Mariko to put him through a little hell…_thought Keitaro darkly, the few faint burn marks left on his back twinging in agreement.

The only thing that Keitaro wondered about now was_ how. _

_

* * *

_

He smelled Mariko coming long before she grabbed him by his uniform collar and dragged him into an alcove in the school hallway.

"Well?! What the hell happened?" she demanded without so much as a 'Hey! I'm glad you're not being arrested,' Keitaro filled her in on the whole incident in Yasukawa's office.

"Nishimura's _father _was a friend of your _mother?!" _cried Mariko. Keitaro nodded.

"Mama-baachan said he was a really nice guy… kinda makes me wonder what happened to his kid… maybe Yukio got all his nastiness from his mother," replied Keitaro in a low voice, "Anyways, that old officer's mate is a Koumori hanyou,"

Mariko frowned for a second, the word escaping her vocabulary.

"Koumori…? Oh… a bat hanyou," she muttered, "and he stood up for you? I can see why,"

"Yah, now I'm just kind of worried that he'll start telling everybody… He basically got told today that youkai exist, and I don't doubt that he'll start something, but I don't know what,"

The rest of the week was quiet, and when Keitaro encountered Yukio in the hallways, the shorter boy would only glare at him hatefully. Yukio distanced himself from his friends from the look of it and could be seen slumped in the corner of the cafeteria, his gaze drilling holes in the back of Keitaro's head. It was about then that Keitaro and Mariko started eating their lunch on the roof of the school.

* * *

When Saturday rolled around once more, Keitaro couldn't wait to jump through the well again. When Mariko arrived at the shrine at five after ten on Saturday morning, she was amused to note that he was all but bouncing with anticipation.

He virtually grabbed her hand and dragged her down the well. Mama-baachan had packed them lunch and they brought the Shikon jewel with them, wary of the fact that Mariko could be injured if she tried to travel through the well without it.

They had exited Inuyasha's forest and were half way across the rice fields before they were noticed. The villagers working in the fields called out greetings to him and before they reached the village, they could see (or in Keitaro's case, smell) Sango, Rika, Miaka and Naomi waiting for them at the edge of the village.

Oddly enough, Miroku's scent was absent from the village as was Masuhiro's and Sachi's.

"Where are they?" asked Keitaro, once they had finished saying hello.

"There was a demon raiding a village to the north, taking children," explained Sango, "My husband took the boys to go exterminate it… We alternate when we get complaints such as these. The next time there is news of a demon attack, I will go after it with Masuhiro and Sachi,"

"Oh," remarked Keitaro, suddenly feeling distinctly uncomfortable. His fighting skills, while far outstripping a normal human's, had never been really put to any use. He doubted his usefulness if the village ever came under attack. He suddenly wondered if he could take on Sango and Hiraikotsu and come out nominally un-injured.

_Come to think of it… I don't even know how to use any of the special attacks that I know Otou-san had… if I even have them…_

As if Sango had been reading his mind, she asked him to show her what he was able to do in a fight. He admitted right off the bat that he had never touched a sword before. Surprisingly enough, Mariko revealed that she'd done fencing for a year in the US.

Between his embarrassment about his lack of sword skills and Mariko explaining what fencing was to Sango, Keitaro began to feel oddly inadequate. Especially when Sango excused herself for several minutes and returned dressed in her Taijiya armor with Hiraikotsu slung over her shoulder. She handed Rika and Mariko a pair of katanas and told Rika to assess how good Mariko was.

The two girls walked away, chatting animatedly.

Sango in turn, led Keitaro to an open space, far away from the village huts, in the middle of the rice fields.

"I knew you would be inexperienced if you ever did return to us Keitaro," she said calmly, "Kagome told me about how people don't usually need to know how to defend themselves in the modern era. Judging from your expression, this embarrasses you… but I will train you, as will Miroku when he returns. This is something that we agreed upon several days ago. Also, Mariko can become one of my apprentices if she wishes,"

"Arigatou Sango-san-"

"Sango, just Sango to the son of my best friend," replied Sango. "Now let's see what you can do," and with that she let Hiraikotsu fly. Startled, Keitaro barely managed to duck the flying boomerang. He was faster when it came soaring back and merely stepped out of its line of flight.

The next time Sango sent the weapon flying in his direction, he was ready. Dodging the whirling boomerang he lunged at her, only to be stopped by her katana, which he had grabbed out of instinct when he saw it move. Swearing as he felt it slice his left hand open, he cursed his stupidity and ducked the returning hiraikotsu.

For the next hour, they sparred like that. Keitaro only managed to close enough to the Taijiya to inflict damage a handful of times. He didn't actually try to slash her, as he stopped when he came close enough to do so.

"For one who's barely had more than a few real fights in your life, you're decent," declared Sango as she caught Hiraikotsu for the fifty-eighth time. Keitaro nodded in reply.

"Do you know how to use your youkai attacks?"

"I have a vague idea… but I've never used them," replied Keitaro, shaking his head. Sango frowned.

"You will have to learn to use them Keitaro,"

"I know,"

"Good, I know you'll do Inuyasha proud," answered Sango with a smile. "I have to go make lunch, I will see you soon," with that, she turned away and began to walk back towards the huts.

Keitaro stared after her, his emotions making him too choked up to speak.

_No one has ever said that to me before…_

* * *

"Mariko, what are you doing?" demanded Rika, backing off and staring at the younger girl incredulously. Mariko flushed slightly and the hand with her katana dropped to her side.

"It's called a coup droit," replied Mariko, the french terms rolling off her tongue.

"Well, it'll be called a 'you're dead' if you tried to use that against anyone bigger than you," replied Rika, shaking her head.

"How so?" asked Mariko, puzzled. So far, she had been 'killed' every single time she had tried to use anything from her very tiny fencing repertoire. Rika's slashcutwhack method of sword use had driven Mariko back nearly every time, save the odd occurrence when Mariko got lucky and managed to touch Rika's arm or torso.

Rika sighed.

"Try it again and I'll show you what I mean,"

The two of them took up starting positions.

"Engarde," whispered Mariko as she lunged forward. Rika parried and spun sideways, swinging her katana up. Mariko gasped as she felt the blade touch her neck.

"What you need is to learn is how to fight dirty," remarked Rika dryly, "If I was some demon or rogue soldier, you'd be fighting for your life and because of that, you'd be dead, and you'd either be eaten or raped."

Mariko was forced to see her point. All her imaginings of a three musketeer-esque sword fight were promptly swept out the window.

"Okay,"

"Let's start again,"

And they did.

* * *

Weeks passed as Mariko and Keitaro made dozens of trips to the feudal era. Slowly, they came to know everyone within the small village. Keitaro began to figure out how to use his youkai attacks and Sango taught them both how to sword fight.

Keitaro began to accompany both Sango and Miroku on demon slaying missions, learning how to bring down demons larger than himself. The presence of the Shikon jewel in the feudal era once more began to draw evil youkai and humans to the village.

By his seventeenth birthday, five months later in late May, Keitaro was able to handle demons on his own that often took Miroku, Sachi and Masuhiro seamless teamwork to bring down. Mariko had become Sango's apprentice and while her sword skills had improved dramatically, she still was years behind Sachi and Masuhiro when it came to training.

Sango had been the first to notice the emergence of Inuyasha's stubborn, fighting spirit in Keitaro's eyes. Before, she felt that the benevolent hanyou boy took after Kagome more than he did Inuyasha. But now she could see, outside appearance aside, that Inuyasha's love for the fight had been awakened within Keitaro's soul.

Just like his father, his eyes would glow with a savage pleasure in battle, but unlike Inuyasha, Keitaro lacked the recklessness that had gotten Inuyasha in over his head so many times. He stopped, thought things over, planned, then acted.

Unlike Kagome, neither of Keitaro nor Mariko took more than a day or two off school every few weeks. Mariko had only told her mother about her trips to the feudal era and as a result, she didn't come through the well nearly as often. Keitaro would come through the well almost everyday after school, even if only to get a breath of fresh air before jumping back through the well. He had discovered that he could travel through it without the Shikon jewel, just like his father had been able to do two decades before.

One thing that both Miroku and Sango marveled at was Keitaro's control over his demon nature. They often wondered how the boy managed to survive without a sealing sword. When Sesshoumaru had arrived in the village three weeks after Inuyasha and Kagome's deaths to avenge the slaying of his brother, he had taken Tetsussaiga back with him to the ancestral castle that stood on the shores of what Kagome had said was going to be called the Sea of Japan…

* * *

Hey all! I've done some rough sketches (I'm no artist) of a bunch of Characters from _Learning my way_ and it's sequel, _Kimi's__ song_. If you want to see them, you can drop me a line and I'll send the pictures in the return e-mail and perhaps a bit of a hint for a future chapter!

Also, Since I've been getting more reviews from media miner & than from , I decided to start acknowledge them 

RayeSun: Oh, they will go find Shippou, eventually… or maybe Shippou will find them? Hmm… interesting thought ;)

Katgome-chan: Thanks Happy now?

Teenage Inuyasha: That many times? I feel very special :D

Lady-Sttar: He's dead. Poor guy. I hope he doesn't stay that way :P

Mediaminer

Persephone of Abydos: I will!

Pagansedjou: I was trying to write a tear-jerker scene… I'm glad that it worked J

Farahlayla: You're my most frequent reviewer! Yay!

Tessiefanfic: thanks


	9. Chapter 8

_Merry Christmas Everyone! Love Mockingbird. _

Chapter 8 

Life in the modern era wasn't going so smoothly for Keitaro though.

Yukio had broken his quiet spell two weeks after the incident in Principal Yasukawa's office. The people who had regarded him with wariness before now only looked at him with expressions of fear and hate. People were suspicious of him, and skirted him in the hallways. Even Ami, the neko-youkai who was in Grade 12 began to worry that her cover might be blown. She was posing as a foreign exchange student with her bright red hair and brilliant green eyes. Her tail and pointed ears were hidden with a semi-permanent concealment spell that her parents had gotten a black miko to cast upon her.

"You've got to resolve this Higurashi!" she had shouted at him, when he had agreed to meet her on the roof of the school, "Trust a dog to screw things up,"

"Hey, let's not get into that, it was Nishimura who started all of this," replied Keitaro calmly.

"No, _You _did," she hissed, "You started it when you threatened to kill him,"

"I didn't threaten to kill him! I said I was capable of it!"

"Who cares what you said _dog_, he took it the wrong way and now you've given away everything! He could destroy what little we have left!"

"I never had anything! I lost my parents in the Sengoku Jidai and I was raised here! By my mother's human family, I never had any chances to conceal myself or even know how youkai society works or if there even still was one!"

"It doesn't matter! You started it! And now you must fix it before we lose everything we've worked for!"

"What, do you really expect me to have taken all of the shit he put me through lying down?!"

Ami didn't have anything to say to that, with a huff and a hiss, she turned and walked away.

"Keh," he snorted, when she was out of earshot, "Stupid cat,"

* * *

Keitaro was quite sure that if it hadn't been for Mariko resolutely sticking by his side and being able to escape to the feudal era, he'd have been driven crazy. Yukio's patented superior looking expression had returned to his face and his old swagger had returned. He held the student body under his sway once more.

Mariko began to feel the effects of the rumors as well. Friends that she had had in different classes and her variety of extracurricular activities began to treat her differently and shy away from her until one day, Keitaro found her crying on one of the benches in the school courtyard.

"They've kicked me off the basketball team, the debate team and Akira, along with pretty much the rest of the English club said they don't want me coming to meetings anymore," she sobbed into Keitaro's shoulder. Keitaro was ready to bet that the members of the English club had said other things too. It took a lot for Mariko to cry. Awkwardly, Keitaro tried to comfort her, but he really didn't know what to say. It was his fault that all of this had started and she was starting to take the brunt of it.

"I'm sorry Mariko," he whispered.

Pulling back, she met his gaze.

"Don't be sorry Keitaro… You can't help who you are, It's their fault that they don't see that… you're nothing like what they say, and no matter what they say, I'll always be your friend," She said firmly, with a hand on his shoulder.

* * *

"HIIIYAAAA!"

Sachi ducked under the kumo youkai's gnashing mandibles and spun his _naginata_, taking off one of the spider's rear legs. The spider stumbled, screaming and raging. Keitaro bounded around the side of it, using his katana to remove two more of the overgrown arachnid's jointed legs.

They had encountered the spider youkai's web when returning from an extermination mission. It was late in the day when the spider had nearly taken off Masuhiro's head and only Keitaro's hanyou reflexes had saved him, pushing the startled young man into the spider's own web, effectively rendering him untouchable by the spider. It also made Masuhiro unable to fight, which put a strain on Miroku, Sachi and Keitaro, who were all used to working in a team of four to bring down demons.

"SACHI!!! LOOK OUT!" bellowed Miroku, as the Spider's stinger whistled towards the thirteen-year-old boy. Keitaro threw himself towards the young taijiya, but it was to late. The stinger caught the boy in the arm.

"Arrrrrrrrghhh!!!" he screamed as the poison of the spider flowed into his body, beginning to dissolve it from the inside out. Dropping to his knees, Sachi managed to dislodge himself from the stinger, but the poison was beginning to do its work. The young taijiya passed out within seconds.

Keitaro and Miroku redoubled their attacks, but no avail. The Spider had made its kill and was going to defend it.

"Sachi! Be strong! Sachi…!" cried Miroku, his eyes tearing up as he threw ofuda after ofuda.

Then Keitaro felt it; the telltale smell/power signature of another holy presence.

"DIE DEMON!"

"Incoming!" screamed Keitaro, throwing himself away.

The brilliant, beautiful purple light of a miko's arrow arced into the clearing, Keitaro barely managing to get out of the line of fire in time. Glancing over his shoulder he saw the arrow pierce the spider's abdomen. Within seconds, it disintegrated.

"Sachi! _Sachi!"_ cried Miroku, running to where his son lay crumpled on the ground. Masuhiro watched from his spot on the web, his face sheet white.

Keitaro glanced towards where the arrow had come from and saw a figure silhouetted against the sunset, holding a bow. Her hair was long and flowing in the breeze and she was dressed in white kimono and red hakama. Slowly she began to approach and Keitaro's ears flattened in his confusion. The miko approaching them smelled almost exactly like his mother, except… she had the death smell. She did not have a beating heart.

The miko strode past him, ignoring him completely. Her face looked as though it was made of porcelain and the expression was calm. Keitaro watched as she approached Miroku, who was kneeling over Sachi's body, attempting to purify the poison. Miroku felt the shadow fall over him and turned, his mouth falling open.

"Move aside Monk," said the miko and Miroku hastened to get out of the way. The miko knelt beside Sachi, placed a hand on his chest, and began to murmur prayers.

Keitaro took the opportunity to take a deep sniff of her and recoiled when he realized that she smelled not of flesh and blood, but of clay. Who was this person? She was alive, and a miko… Keitaro watched as she purified the youkai's poison within Sachi's body, but she was dead, her soul not quite in tune with the world.

"He will be weak," said the miko calmly, "but he will live,"

"Thank you Kikyou…" breathed Miroku, picking up his son.

_Kikyou? I recognize that name…My mother was her reincarnation…wasn't she? _Wondered Keitaro, watching her curiously. Kikyou was now staring at Miroku.

"You are the houshi that accompanied my re-incarnation and the half-demon Inuyasha, were you not?" she asked, giving him a look. _What is that expression…?Disgust…?_

Miroku nodded.

"I am Miroku," he answered, miming a bow, being unable to do a full one with Sachi in his arms.

"Here, let me carry him," said Keitaro, stepping forward and carefully took the young Taijiya boy from his father.

"Thank you Keitaro,"

Suddenly, Kikyou's hand shot out and grabbed his shoulder, pulling him around to face her. Kikyou's brown eyes narrowed as she scrutinized him, studying his face and ears. Her face suddenly contorted with rage, and Keitaro shrunk back as far as he could. Kikyou's hand was like an iron vice on his shoulder and Keitaro winced as a flicker of unchecked purifying energy escaped from her hand.

"You," spat Kikyou, her eyes filled with hate, "You are his… his…_son…_I see Inuyasha in your face and I see the face of my re-incarnation, the wretched girl! "

It suddenly dawned on Keitaro as a few more crackles of Kikyou's energy zapped him, causing him to grit his teeth to prevent himself from yelping.

She didn't know about me… She didn't know that Okaa and Otou married…She's not mad at me…She's mad at them. "I knew that Inuyasha and the girl were dead, for my soul is whole once more, but I never thought that she would stoop to that level… She…" Kikyou was too choked up with rage to speak properly and was reduced to muttering several oaths. "Please don't talk about my mother like that," replied Keitaro softly, shrugging off her hand, which had seemed to go limp.

* * *

_INUYASHA!!!!_ Raged Kikyou inwardly _How could you do this to me?! You chose the girl Kagome… you lie with her, that righteous bitch, producing another hanyou, you bastard and then you die, leaving me behind, stuck here in this world between life and death. You promised me! You promised me… _

The hanyou boy shifted his shoulder, causing her hand to fall to her side. She suddenly realized he was speaking.

"-I don't know what was going on between you, Okaa and Otou… I wasn't even around then, but don't you think its time you let go? You aren't the only one who wishes Otou was still here," said the boy, his gold eyes lacking the hardened and veiled edge that had always seemed to be lurking in Inuyasha's gaze.

Kikyou stared at the boy, almost a man and wondered where his wisdom had come from.

"Kikyou-sama, Are you listening to me?" asked Keitaro quietly.

"I don't listen to the spawn of demons and I will _never_ listen to anyone who carries the blood of Inuyasha in their veins!" screamed Kikyou, pushing him away with a blast of power.

* * *

"ARRRGGGHHH!!" screamed Keitaro, stumbling backwards, barely managing to keep his footing as the energy swept over him. He struggled to keep from dropping Sachi as his body felt like it was being burned and dunked in cold water at the same time and then Keitaro realized what was happening. It was absorbing into him, the purifying energy was seeping into all his pores… _Is this the end…? _

_Wait-a-minute… My skin is no longer burning…! _

Keitaro felt his eyes widen as the last of the energy faded away. The burns and blisters that had been developing on his arms and face faded away. A new sensation invaded him, joining with his youkai senses and the aura of his youki, but not mixing with it. Instead of just his youki sensing Miroku's and Kikyou's presences as smell-energy signatures, he could also see the holy auras that surrounded them as a faint purple glow, Kikyou's being far brighter and stronger than Miroku's.

Masuhiro and Sachi he could see as orange figures in his mind's eye, while the trees were various shades of dark green and blue. A small squirrel was a light yellow-green colour.

_What the hell is going on?_ Thought Keitaro, shaking his head, half-trying to rid his mind of the new awareness. He had never felt anything like it… it was as if a completely new side of him had been awakened by Kikyou's blast. He lowered Sachi to the ground, and stood up again, staring at his clawed hands.

Around them, a faint purple glow was starting to develop, mixing with the yellow aura of his youki, which was already present.

"Impossible!" gasped Miroku, dropping his staff, "A holy aura is developing around you Keitaro!"

"Whaaaaatttt??" cried Keitaro, looking like he had been struck full in the face with something of about the same weight as Hiraikotsu, "How the hell does that work!? I'm a hanyou! I should be damn well burning myself to death!"

Keitaro stared at his hands, mesmerized by the swirling aura. It was then that he noticed that his youki and the new purple aura were not merging as one, but creating a swirling, marbled pattern. He glanced at Kikyou, but the undead miko seemed rooted to the spot, staring at him blankly, her expression was uncharacteristically stupid looking. Her jaw was hanging open and she held her bow loosely at her side.

"Erhm…. What's going on?" said Masuhiro in a quiet voice.

Keitaro shook himself out of his reverie and went to go free the boy from his sticky prison.

"Hold still," he said, his hand flashing out and making short work of the web's silk, his claws glinting in the rapidly fading sunlight. Masuhiro landed on the ground and started trying to peel off the strands of silk that were still stubbornly fastened to his Taijiya armor. Keitaro helped him with them also, hooking his claws into the strands and yanking them off.

Masuhiro grimaced as the sticky stands ripped off patches of arm hair.

"Damned spiders… I hate them," he remarked once Keitaro had finished. Keitaro nodded fervently in agreement and went over to pick up Sachi once more while the elder Taijiya boy went to pry his weapon, a _shinobi zue_; (a long staff that when twisted turned into a spear that Masuhiro could throw like a javelin with a devastating accuracy)from the spider's web. Kikyou stared at Keitaro, her dark eyed gaze was starting to unnerve him. The sun sank below the horizon and the shadows of the group lengthened.

"Kikyou, you may return to the village with us if you wish," suggested Miroku, in an effort to break the icy silence.

"No," said Kikyou, then she turned and walked away.

They silently watched her go.

When she had disappeared into the trees, Miroku cleared his throat.

"We will travel in the dark, we must reach the village," he said firmly. Both Keitaro and Masuhiro nodded in agreement.

"Yes Miroku,"

"Yes, Chichi-ue,"

* * *

Keitaro estimated that it was just after midnight when they reached the village. He had gone ahead, carrying Sachi most of the way while Masuhiro and Miroku hiked behind him. He sprinted across the rice fields that were illuminated by the moonlight and blew into the village, skidding to a stop outside Keiko's hut at the base of the stairs.

"Keiko!" he called, knocking on the edge of the doorframe. Moments later, she appeared, fully dressed, but otherwise looking as though she had just been roused from a deep sleep. Her eyes widened and she gasped when she saw Sachi, pale and seemingly dead.

As soon as Keitaro had settled Sachi down on the futon, he ran to wake Sango, telling her the story as they both strode back to Keiko's hut, he concluded his explanation with "Miroku and Sachi are an hour behind me, I'm going to go get some medicine from my time, Okay?"

Sango nodded and disappeared into Keiko's hut and Keitaro turned around and made for the well. He reached it in record time and vaulted the edge, plunging down into the netherworld of the slip. When he materialized, he sprung out of the well and threw open the shoji, sprinting across the shrine grounds to the house.

"Mama!" he cried, as he pushed open the shoji, "Do you know where I can find any anti-venom's?!"

It was then that the smelled the strange scent slapped his nostrils. There was a youkai in the house, in the kitchen from the smell of it.

"I'm in the kitchen Keitaro!" called Mama-baachan cheerfully, "What is it that you need?"

Keitaro ran down the hallway and skidded into the kitchen, his eyebrows shooting up to his hairline when he saw the slim, red-haired man sitting at the table with Mama-baachan, drinking tea. Both seemingly oblivious to the late hour.

"Back so soon Keitaro? What has you in such a rush?" asked Mama-baachan. The man just stared at him, as though he had just seen a ghost. Poking out the back of his jeans, was a fluffy tail. Keitaro could feel the traces of the spells over his tail and ears.

"Who are you?" demanded Keitaro, glaring at the youkai.

"Oh, Keitaro, This is Shane Kits, an exchange student from America, he was asking so many questions about the shrine that I invited him in for tea," answered Mama-baachan, "Shane, this is my grandson Keitaro,"

Keitaro didn't bow when Mama-baachan looked at him expectantly, and she frowned and glanced towards pointedly to where the frying pan was sitting on the counter then back at him. He was going to have to duck it later.

"He's not an exchange student Mama-baachan," replied Keitaro, "It's a front, he's a youkai, a kitsune, I think,"

"What?!" yelped Mama, aghast. She whirled around to face the man that sat at her kitchen table.

"What sort of black miko did you hire for your concealment spells?" demanded Keitaro, glaring at the red-haired man balefully. The man's green eyes met his evenly.

"A miko who lives in Kyoto does them for a small fee," he replied quietly, "They last a year, I'm surprised you don't have one Keitaro, It's the only way the few of us youkai and hanyous left survive in the era,"

"Who are you?"

"The name's Shippou, I've grown a bit, but I'm still that annoying little Kitsune that your parents rescued from the Thunder Brothers five hundred and sixty odd years ago," replied the youkai, smiling slightly. Keitaro's mouth fell open and Mama's eyes grew round.

"Shippou?!" gasped Mama-baachan, "The little fox boy that Kagome would always bring crayons and candy for?"

Shippou laughed.

"The very same, except I'm not exactly little any more," he replied, grinning, "You've been going through the well?"

Keitaro nodded.

"Excellent, for how long, may I ask?"

"A few weeks," answered Keitaro, raising an eyebrow. Shippou nodded contemplatively, as though comparing the information to something in his memory and smiled.

"What is it that you needed anyways Keitaro?" asked Mama-baachan curiously, standing up to put the small teacups in the sink. They clinked and clattered and she turned on the faucet to rinse them out with.

"Anti-venom for Sachi, He got stung by a kumo youkai that we were exterminating… the venom got purified, but it's still there, causing damage,"

"I suppose one of the hospitals would have some, but I don't know any doctor's who would give anti-venom to someone your age Keitaro," replied Mama-baachan cautiously.

"Which hospitals?" demanded Keitaro, crossing his arms stubbornly.

"Tokyo University Hospital has some," contributed Shippou, "I know someone who had to be treated there for a spider bite,"

"Arigatou Shippou," called Keitaro over his shoulder, already halfway to the door.

"Keitaro! Wait!" cried Mama-baachan, but he was already gone, the shoji slamming shut behind him. She shook her head, smiled slightly and sighed. "That boy, just like his father, nothing can stop him once he's set his mind to something," she remarked fondly. Shippou nodded in agreement.

"Don't I know it," he replied, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair, "Don't I know it,"

* * *

An hour later, Keitaro was bounding away from Tokyo university hospital, a vial of anti-venom and a syringe in hand. Stealing them had been difficult and he had nearly been caught by nurse on duty, avoiding detection by smelling her approaching and slipping in between a set of shelves and the wall, thanking the Gods that he could make his movements completely inaudible to human ears.

He crossed through the well, gently touching down on the Sengoku Jidai side. With a leap and a bound, he was already on his way to the village.

Reaching it, he could smell that Miroku and Masuhiro had arrived minutes before he had. He pushed his way into Keiko's hut, handing the miko the antidote and syringe in its sterile packaging. Keiko stared the apparatus with confusion, but Sango, recognizing it for what it was, took it from her, opened it, carefully read the directions on the bottle, filled the syringe and injected her son with the anti-venom.

"Four more doses and he should be better," she said quietly.

* * *

Sachi was still weak from the venom two weeks later. He lay on his futon in his family's hut, pale and shaking with fever, barely able to keep down the medicines that both Keitaro and Mariko brought for him.

It was during those two weeks that Keitaro received a stark reminder that there still was at least four jewel shards to be found. He knew where two of them were; embedded in Kouga's legs, but the other two had been in the hands of Naraku's puppets. Kanna apparently had dissolved when Naraku had been brought down to his knees and killed by Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru, His soul purified out of existence by the combined efforts of Kagome and Kikyou.

The two remaining shards that Naraku had possessed had vanished and the group had not had time to search them out, for Sango had already been five months pregnant with Rika at the time of the final battle. Instead, the Inu-tachi had settled down to some semblance of domestic bliss.

* * *

A week after Sachi's poisoning, rumors arrived from the West that a rogue, un-slayable leopard demon was destroying villages that were about 30 ri from their village. They set out the day after the rumor arrived, Masuhiro and Miroku riding on Kirara and Keitaro carrying Mariko, who had just received two _tessen;_ which were folding fans with blades made of the bones of dead youkai instead of metal, from Sango. She was still nowhere near as skilled as the three men, but she could hold her own against a small youkai and often saw things that the others missed when in battle. In short, she was better than nothing.

It took three days to journey to the most easternly of the devastated villages. It was the first time that Mariko and Keitaro had missed more than a day of school for something on the feudal era. Keitaro could smell the cremation pyres from three miles away and by the time they had reached the village at about five thirty in the afternoon, the smell of burning flesh made Keitaro's head swim and his eyes water.

* * *

"RYUJI! RYUJI! NATSUKO! COME HERE! There are people coming from the West!" They heard the scream of a young boy from several yards away as they reached the outer perimeter of the decimated village. A small boy jumped out from behind a rock and dashed away. Keitaro caught a glimpse of a badly scarred face and arm before the thick black smoke obscured the boy as he set Mariko on the ground. Behind him, Miroku and Masuhiro dismounted from Kirara. Resisting the temptation to keel over retching, Keitaro sniffed the air and recoiled. The stench of burning flesh overwhelmed everything else. Keitaro could barely smell Mariko and she was standing a mere two feet away.

Mariko held a handkerchief over her nose and tried to blink back the tears welling up in her eyes, caused by both her horror at the devastated village and irritation from the smoke. Behind her, Masuhiro started coughing and Miroku wrinkled his nose, his mouth a grim slash on his sad face.

"HELLO?" bellowed Keitaro into the smoke, there was no verbal answer, but two figures quickly materialized out of the haze.

The scarred boy was pulling a ragged looking young woman with a sooty face and bloodstained purple yukata along. She was obviously pretty, but her face was fearful and exhausted, and her eyes resembled a raccoon's, with large purple rings around them from fatigue. In the hand that the boy was not pulling, a dagger was held by her side. Keitaro felt his eyes widen as he saw that the left side of the boy's face was divided by a long jagged scar that stretched from his hairline to just below his mouth. Another smaller scar marked where the boy's left ear had been and he could see traces of the injury on the boy's neck and on his left hand.

Mariko ran forward and took the girl's trembling hand from the boy, who despite the disfigurements that marred his looks, seemed to be in better shape than the elder girl. Leading her to a rock, Mariko sat the young woman down and offered her the contents of her water bottle, which the girl drank greedily.

"My name is Fujita Mariko," said Mariko softly, "What's your name?"

"Natsuko," replied the girl with a hoarse whisper, "and that's Ichiro," she continued, nodding towards the boy. Then she caught sight of Miroku and her expression brightened ever so slightly.

"You're a monk? Can you please say a prayer for those who we are burning?"

Miroku nodded.

"Can't you just bury the villagers though?" he asked, frowning. The girl shook her head.

"There are only the three of us and we cannot keep the carrion crows away when they come at dusk… we decided that it is more honourable to be burned so that one lies in eternal sleep with the winds rather than be torn apart by hungry youkai," replied Natsuko quietly, "but you can at least bless their souls?"

"I will," said Miroku, "We will also help you in just about anyway you need it,"

Natsuko's eyes filled with tears.

"Thank you Houshi-sama, Ryuji, Ichiro and I are most grateful," she whispered, wiping her eyes with an unstained corner of her yukata sleeve. She stood.

"Come, I'll take you to where Ryuji is tending the fires," she contined, turning. Ichiro skipped after her, while the four of them followed, Miroku at the lead, and Keitaro bringing up the rear, one hand on the hilt of his sword while the other pinched his nose in an attempt to block out the stench. It helped a little.

All of them scrunched up their eyes as they approached the pyres. Out of the smoke, a broad figure appeared, his clothes coloured completely black from the smoke. Beyond him, they could see the gigantic flames of the cremation pyres. There were three of them, fed with wood from the village huts.

When the man appeared, Keitaro was surprised to see that Ryuji looked to be the same age as he was, but taller and stronger looking, though Keitaro knew he wasn't. Ryuji was as haggard looking as Natsuko was, and dirtier, his hands stained black and stubble growing haphazardly on his face. Unlike Natsuko, who seemed oblivious to him and Masuhiro, Ryuji's eyes riveted on his inu-ears the second he saw them.

"Who are you?" he demanded, his eyes narrowing.

"Higurashi Keitaro," replied Keitaro, hoping the last name would make the guy back off. Considering commoners did not have last names in the Sengoku Jidai, when Mariko introduced herself with her full name out of habit, people immediately assumed her to be nobility of sort, with her fair skin and blue eyes. Keitaro had stopped using introducing himself has Higurashi Keitaro when they had encountered a daimyo who actually possessed the name Higurashi and had been quite slightly irked that a hanyou possessed his name.

Out of respect, Keitaro stopped using it, unless he wanted to put an extra edge into his reply when asked who he was. For the daimyo had otherwise been generous to them, letting them all spend the night in his compound during a storm and promised to shelter them whenever they needed it, in exchange for slaying or exorcising any demons that troubled his lands.

"Are you related to the hanyou Inuyasha?" asked Ryuji.

Keitaro nodded warily and to his surprise, Ryuji's soot-blackened face split into a grin.

"Are you his son?"

"Hai," replied Keitaro, feeling slightly bewildered and confused. The noxious smoke was starting to muddle up his reactions.

"My father Taromaru was a great admirer of Inuyasha and his friends, they aided him when he was a boy," replied Ryuji in an earnest voice and a bow, "It is an honour to meet you,"

"Taromaru, you say?" said Miroku pensively.

"Yes," answered Ryuji, "Did you know him?"

"I was there when Inuyasha defeated the False water God… By the way, is the Water Goddess still around?" he said with an odd gleam in his eye. Masuhiro perked up at the mention of her.

"Miroku!" erupted Mariko, "You're married!"

Miroku had the grace to look ashamed of himself.

"Old habits die hard," he replied with a weak grin. Mariko glared at him and the grin vanished.

"No, the Water goddess left this area years ago when I was a small boy," replied Ryuji, frowning at the exchange. Both Miroku and Masuhiro slumped. Keitaro was tempted to snicker, but the smoke made him unwilling to open his mouth anymore. In the distance, within the fire, he could see the last few souls escaping from the burning bodies.

"Are you going to perform the rites, Houshi-sama?" cut in Natsuko with a desperate note in her voice.

"Ah yes," replied Miroku, his solemn expression appearing once more as he reached into his robes for a few sticks of incense.

* * *

Three hours later, The seven of them sat in one of the only huts that was still standing, eating rice and some wild rabbit that Keitaro had hunted with some reluctance. Half the roof was missing and the place reeked of charred flesh, but it was shelter from the chilly temperatures. The fires had burned down so that they were piles of smoking ashes, which scattered as the winds blew.

They all looked worse for the wear and soot blackened all their faces. Mariko felt extremely guilty for thinking about how her shirt had been ruined by all the work she had been doing. Natsuko had remained silent for most of the evening; her dark eyes were hollow and cold. She picked at her rice, barely eating. Ryuji tried to put up a good face by telling stories that Taromaru told him, but there was a distinct haunted look behind his eyes.

Ichiro seemed strangely unbothered by the fact that his fellow villagers had been massacred. He told jokes and even laughed when Masuhiro had lost his footing on some stones. He was a tiny boy, painfully thin, with round light brown eyes and sunken cheeks. The top of his head was level with Keitaro's waist, but he seemed able to eat more than the hanyou could, and that was saying something.

"Ichiro… what happened to your face?" Keitaro asked quietly, and then winced as Mariko subtly reached up behind him and yanked mightily on his ponytail, scolding him without a word for a lack of tact on his part. Ichiro's face darkened at the mention of his scarring and Keitaro suddenly felt like an ass and his ears flattened against his skull.

The boy didn't say a word, but Natsuko spoke up for the first time in over an hour.

"Ichiro was attacked by a rat-youkai two years ago, we all were amazed that he survived," she whispered, setting down her bowl. Ichiro hung his head, for the first time appearing less than cheerful.

No more was said in the hut as they settled down to sleep, Keitaro vacating his preference for a roof over his head in favour of a large willow tree that grew at the edge of the former village's damaged rice fields.

The smell of burnt flesh was less nauseating there.

* * *

Thank you to all... well... more acurately TWO reviewers.... :(

I have decided that _At the beginning _from Disney's Anastasia is the perfect theme song for Keitaro and Mariko.

For those of you who don't know it, it goes something like this (It's a duet):

_We were strangers,_

_Starting out on a journey_

_Never dreaming of what we'd have to go through_

_Now here we are, and I'm suddenly standing,_

_At the beginning with you._

_No one told me that I was going to find you_

_Unexpected, what you did to my heart_

_When I lost hope_

_You were there to remind me,_

_This is the start…_

Chorus 

_And life is a road that I want to keep going _

_Love is a river that I want to keep flowing_

_Life is a road_

_Now and forever_

_A wonderful journey_

_I'll be there when the world stops turning_

_I'll be there when the storm is through_

_In the end, I want to be standing at the beginning with you…_

_We were strangers on a crazy adventure_

_Never dreaming of how our dreams would come true_

_Now here we stand, unafraid of the future_

_At the beginning with you_

_(Chorus)_

_Knew there was somebody, somewhere…_

_Who had been left in the dark (A/N: I'm not sure if this line is correct…)_

_Now I know my dream will live on_

_I've been waiting so long_

_Nothing is going to tear us apart._

_(Chorus) x3_

'At the beginning' belongs to Disney. Not mine!

It probably doesn't fit well now, because you all have only read about 7 chapters, but this song fits into how I'm making this story along with Keitaro's and Mariko's relationship evolve, except my plot won't be quite so happy/cheesy as the song is. The '_In the end, I want to be standing at the beginning with you' _line is a very big key into the later plot of Learning my way. smiles mysteriously ….. Man… I feel like JK Rowling… all these little secrets that I can't tell anyone…. It's driving me mad! Even my beta reader won't let me tell him anything… gyah….. twitches


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Keitaro's eyes opened just as the sun began peeking over the horizon. His neck felt slightly stiff from being held upright all night, but he knew the discomfort would go away within seconds of him stretching out.

Vaguely, he wondered how miko's and monks could ever sleep. He had been kept awake most of the night by little things that kept his senses on high alert. The flicker of a mouse in the grass below was enough to jar him awake from the deepest of sleeps. It unnerved him entirely. Before, his youkai senses had been on standby, constantly scanning, but not alerting him to anything unless it was what his instincts registered as big and mean.

Now that, combined with his ability to sense approaching auras and life forces, no matter what their shape or form, made it nearly impossible for him to sleep for very long. He longed for his bedroom back in the modern era where the only moving life forces in the middle of the night would be Jii-chan going to the bathroom - he was too used to that to even stir.

He knew that he could function well on only an hour or so of sleep because of his youkai blood, but like any normal teenaged boy, he liked sleeping and missing out on it pained him.

From his perch on one of the willow tree's huge braches, Keitaro could smell that no one was awake. Dropping down from the tree, Keitaro went to go dig through his small bag, and pulled out an energy bar, tearing off the wrapper and devouring it in three bites.

He leaned in the door of the hut and peered at those who were inside, under the half of the roof that was still there. Miroku sat near the door, his back braced against one of the walls and his eye closed. In front of him, Masuhiro was thoroughly tangled in his bedroll and beyond him; Mariko was sleeping on her side, cocooned in the small sleeping bag that she carried around. Her dark hair reflected a midnight blue in the sunlight that was visible.

Straightening up, he lightly stepped over to where she was lying and crouched down to study her features. Gently, he brushed her bangs aside with one of his claws, being careful not to graze her skin. Her blue eyes were closed and she looked content, her thin lips were curved upwards in a small smile and her pale skin seemed to glow in the early morning light. She was beautiful.

_Seven months… It's been seven months since that day you came to school. _

Echoes of her voice resonated in his mind. _"See? Not that bad…I think they're kinda cute," _It had been then that he had fallen, succumbed to her blue eyes and warm smile without really realizing it. Only later, did he begin to understand how much he loved her, but he knew that she didn't really think of him that way. Even his presence hadn't really stopped other boys from asking her out on dates, nor Mariko agreeing to go with the boy to a movie or out to dinner. He didn't like it one bit, but hell would have to freeze over before he said anything. He didn't have the right.

Standing up once more, he looked around.

Next to Mariko, Natsuko slept, fidgeting and worrying the sheets, her face contorting as nightmares chased each other about in her head. Ichiro was sleeping peacefully next to her, snuggled up in a blanket that had been folded in half, making a psudo-sleeping bag for the small boy. Last was Ryuji was splayed out on his stomach, seeming to experiencing peaceful slumber. Keitaro noted the katana that he kept next to his raggedy futon.

His gaze returned to Miroku, studying the aura that he could see around the monk. Once you got past the dominant violet of his holy powers, there were a whole myriad of colours, flickers of amber, lemon greens, a dark blue-ish colour, dark brown and an odd yellowish colour, not unlike mustard.

Masuhiro's dominant colour was red, with bits of royal blue, some amber (but less than his father), two different shades of green, one a lemon green and the other a darker, more intense shade, and finally, several little flickers of pinks here and there. Mariko's aura was the most colourful of the lot, with several hues of blue and yellow intermingling, with large splashes of amber, jade green, crimson, and, for a second, Keitaro swore he saw a flash of white.

In contrast, Natsuko's aura was dark and almost non-existent, with dark greens, charcoal grays, deep purple and pale yellow scattered haphazardly throughout. Ichiro's aura was comprised mainly of reds, greens and blue, with a hint of the darkness that was so predominant in Natsuko's aura. Ryuji's aura was red, amber, brown and a dark viridian green.

_Damn… I have to figure out what all that stuff means... _

After about five minutes, Miroku began to stir as the rays of the sun fell on his face. Blearily, he opened his eyes.

"Oh… Good morning Keitaro…" he murmured with a yawn.

"'Morning Miroku," replied Keitaro, heading for the door. He had to go hunt for breakfast, or, more accurately, he had to go fishing for breakfast.

* * *

When he returned a half an hour later, soaking wet and with six fish in hand, the only one left sleeping was Ichiro. He handed the cleaned and gutted fish to Mariko as she built up a fire. Keitaro peeled off his T-shirt and held it up next to the fire. He couldn't do much about his jeans, but they would dry, eventually. He'd just have to be uncomfortable for awhile.

Mariko efficiently wrapped the fish in tinfoil along with some rice and pushed them into the coals of the fire, where they would cook in their own juices and become nice and tender. Natsuko watched her work on breakfast with a slightly interested expression, asking questions about the tinfoil and both his and Mariko's clothing.

"Oh, We come from Japan," said Mariko airily, using the English name for their country instead of the Japanese one; Nippon. Keitaro had to fight to keep from sniggering, she always sounded so funny when she did this.

"Where's Japan?" asked Natsuko interestedly.

"Oh, it's this long chain of islands, at the edge of a really big ocean, not too far from here," replied Mariko with an engaging smile, "It's not all that different really, and we get a lot of you people there.

Keitaro bit down on his tongue to keep from laughing.

"Ow! Fuck!" he swore as one of his fangs caught the edge of it and went right through. The coppery taste of blood filled his mouth and he spat savagely into the fire.

Both girls looked up at him with question marks in their eyes.

"Um… I accidentally bit my tongue…" he stammered, "Just thinking about all that fish… smells so good... yum…" Mariko got a knowing look in her eye.

"Why don't you go help Ryuji go dismantle the last of the houses?" she suggested, "We'll call you bunch when breakfast is ready,"

"Keh, I'll smell it long before you call us," snorted Keitaro, standing and brushing the dirt off his wet jeans and putting on his mostly dry T-shirt.

"Of course you will Keitaro," replied Mariko benignly, with an innocent seeming smile on her face, "but the rest of us, save Kirara, are nose-blind,"

"I know," called Keitaro over his shoulder as he left the partially roofless hut, "That's why I'll tell them that food's ready when I smell it,"

"He doesn't act like a youkai, or even a hanyou," commented Natsuko when Keitaro was out of earshot. Mariko shrugged.

"He's only one quarter youkai," she replied, poking at the fish with a stick, "and he was raised by his human family in our country, so a lot of that rubbed off on him… He's really quiet around most people and before we came here, he didn't really know anything about fighting or using any of his youkai abilities,"

"That's why you aren't scared of him?" asked Natsuko.

"Why would I be scared of him?" Mariko gave the girl a strange look. Natsuko gave her a meaningful _duh _look. Mariko frowned.

"Well, you're a woman and he's a youkai and he has to be really strong…" Natsuko trailed off at the look of outrage on Mariko's face.

"Keitaro is _nothing_ like that!" she exploded angrily, "just because he has youkai blood doesn't mean he's some uncontrollable monster. In fact, he's more human than some _humans _I know!" She paused and took a deep breath, before continuing in a less hostile voice, "Seriously Natsuko, not all youkai are like that. I mean, take Keitaro's father, he was a nice guy, bit rough around the edges though, from what I heard and we've met a few youkai who aren't blood thirsty murderers,"

Natsuko was silent, her face twisting and Mariko suddenly backtracked, realizing who she was talking to.

"Though I don't blame you for thinking so Natsuko, I'm sorry…"

Natsuko turned away and an uncomfortable silence filled the hut that hung over the two girls like a dark fog. Mariko busied herself with poking at the fish cooking in their tinfoil tombs. She checked her watch every few minutes and rolled up her sleeping bag, stuffing it in her bag. Eventually, she began drawing pictures in the dirt with the stick. Little smiley faces, spirals and patterns. Anything to distract herself from the goddamned silence.

"AIIYEEEEEE!" Ryuji's terrified scream echoed across the remains of the village.

Both Mariko and Natsuko jumped and they rushed outside to see what was happening and both skidded to a stop at the sight of a large red-pink bubble floating in the air above the young man, cackling evilly. In the distance, Mariko could see Keitaro, Miroku and Masuhiro. Both the hanyou and the Taijiya were running flat out, sword drawn and spear ready respectively. Miroku was ambling towards them with an amused grin on his face.

Mariko wondered if he was on something as she reached for one of the _tessen_ in their holdersattached to her belt and flipped it open, completely ready to pop that bubble, should it start moving towards them. Ryuji had his katana drawn and was waving it at the bubble while yelling incoherently.

_Wait a minute… It sounds more like that thing is giggling now. _Thought Mariko as she began to run towards where Ryuji stood. Keitaro beat her to him, sword raised and just as he before he could begin to slash at it, it popped.

A boy with bright red hair and a fluffy tail fell to the ground, swearing and gaping at Keitaro.

"No _WAY_ no fucking _WAY!"_ screeched the boy, scrabbling away from the stunned hanyou on his ass. He looked no older than Masuhiro was at 16.

"Shippou?!" Keitaro gasped, recognizing the smell of the boy, his mouth falling open in surprise, before stammering "But…how…what the hell?"

"No WAY!" repeated the boy insistently, shaking his head violently and blinking at Keitaro disbelievingly.

It was about then that Masuhiro arrived.

"Hey… You're a kitsune!" he exclaimed in a surprised voice, sliding his spear into it's holder on his back.

"What did you expect baka? A rabbit?" shot back the kitsune impudently.

"Calm, Shippou, Where did you pick up all that language?" Miroku's amused voice floated over to them. Shippou's head snapped towards the approaching Monk so fast that Keitaro heard it crack slightly.

"Miroku?!"

"Yes, Shippou, it's me,"

The kitsune's face took on a somewhat dazed look.

"No way…" he breathed. Mariko crouched down in front of the kitsune boy and pulled him to his feet. Instantly the girl in front of him and her beautiful blue eyes mesmerized him. He didn't pick up anything she said.

"Hello….It's Shippou right? I'm Fujita Mariko, the stunned hanyou on your left is Keitaro, You know Miroku, That's Masuhiro, I'm sure it's been awhile since you last saw him, and those three there are Ryuji, Natsuko and Ichiro….um… hello?" she waved a hand in front of his face. No reaction. The boy was staring at her chest, his jaw hanging open just a little.

Keitaro took matters into his own hands before Mariko could react and thunked the kitsune on the head, leaving a nice round lump. Mariko didn't protest his handling of the situation. She'd have left a bigger mark.

"HEY! WHATDIDJADOTHATFOR?!" growled Shippou indignantly, rubbing his injured head.

"Don't ogle," advised Keitaro, cocking an eyebrow and pulling his back his lip ever so slightly, revealing a fang for a fleeting moment, "Bad things tend to happen to people who ogle."

"I wasn't-!" protested Shippou.

"You were," replied Keitaro pointedly, cutting him off, "Don't."

Shippou muttered several oaths and Keitaro wondered what happened to the sweet little kitsune he had been told about. Shippou watched the hanyou darkly out of the corner of his eye and wondered what had happened to the sweet little baby that he used to know.

_Luck had to have him turn out like Inuyasha! _Thought Shippou savagely.

"Well Shippou, it's good to see you again!" said Miroku brightly, hoping to break the tension filled silence, "Sango will be delighted to know that you're still alive, just as I am,"

"Yeah," replied Shippou disinterestedly, "It'll be nice to see her again,"

Miroku frowned, but before he could reply, Keitaro jerked and turned, sniffing deeply.

"Mariko! Breakfast!" he yelped, whipping around to face her.

Mariko glanced at her watch and started.

"Oh my!" she gasped and tore off towards the hut, desperate to save their chow from becoming charcoal.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, they were packing up.

The fish had been charred, but edible and even Shippou had had some. Ryuji, Natsuko and Ichiro were going to journey back to Kaede's village, with Masuhiro and Kirara as escort, while Keitaro, Miroku, Mariko and Shippou went ahead. Masuhiro promised to catch up whenever he could.

As they walked, Miroku peppered Shippou with questions about where he had been and what he had been up to.

Shippou answered the questions in short; two word replies and soon the monk gave up and left the kitsune to his grumbling. Keitaro didn't miss the interested, heated looks that Shippou kept sending Mariko as she walked next to him as he quizzed her with some mental math problems.

_Okay. The guys at school are one thing, but Shippou?_ Thought Keitaro, shaking his head, _Seriously, everything's been screwed around with lately. First Sachi, then Kikyou, then that other OLDER Shippou, then this rogue youkai, and now I've got a younger, surlier version of Shippou after Mariko… God damn it…_ Keitaro grimaced as he took a sniff in Mariko's direction… _she's almost in heat too… That must have something to do with it. _

* * *

It was very hard to endure Shippou's attempts to get back into Mariko's good graces.

_More like 'attempt' to be honest… _thought Keitaro darkly as he watched Mariko with the flower tucked behind her ear as she negotiated with a vendor about some the price of some foodstuffs.

Shippou had bought it from a vendor as soon as they reached the village and offered it to her. Mariko had smiled and thanked Shippou before tucking it behind her ear, where it had been for the past hour or so.

Both Keitaro and Miroku were surprised at how quickly Shippou turned on the charm, but Miroku didn't know what Keitaro did. Though he appeared to be about sixteen and acted about that maturity level, Shippou had to be about 26 years old and from the smell of it, he was no stranger to women warming his futon at night.

* * *

By the next evening, Keitaro was at the end of his rope.

The brass, angry Shippou disappeared around Mariko and he was unfailingly helpful and complimentary. What made Keitaro twitch was that Mariko ate it up. It had gotten to the point where even Mariko had noticed the tension in Keitaro's shoulders and suggesting he go find an onsen to soak in.

When, for a moment that Shippou was out of earshot, Miroku leaned over and whispered; "If it makes you feel any better Keitaro, I don't like this either, I don't know what happened to him to make him like this…"

"But why!?" exploded Keitaro in a savage whisper, his ears flattening against his skull in irritation, "Why on earth is she treating him like he _isn't _undressing her with his eyes right now?"

They both silently watched Mariko and Shippou walking up ahead of them, talking and laughing about an anecdote that Shippou had just told about a village headman.

Miroku suddenly understood the true extent of the hanyou's stress and whistled softly. The boy had a better handle on his jealousy than Inuyasha could have ever hoped to have. He knew for a fact that Inuyasha would have snapped by now and tried to kill whoever was moving in on what he considered his turf.

Part of this took Miroku by surprise. A few days ago, he had thought Mariko and Keitaro were close friends, but now, he knew that was not the case. There was something deeper here, something that he recognized and could relate too. He had had about a year's worth of stinging red hand marks on his face to prove it. It had taken that long for Sango to stop thinking of him as an annoyance. He had loved her long before she started loving him.

* * *

When they made camp, Shippou disappeared for a time, telling Keitaro not to hunt for dinner, he'd handle it. Keitaro had agreed and the kitsune was off before he realized his mistake.

_Fuck… Isn't that one thing that youkai do to impress potential mates? Get dinner for them… At least Mariko's human, she wouldn't recognize it for what it was… would she?_

Resisting the temptation to go after Shippou and bring back something bigger, Keitaro dug his homework out of his bag and smiled faintly when Mariko did the same.

"Are you still having problems with that worksheet Baker-sensei gave us?" she asked, coming to sit beside him and leaning over to peer at the sheets of paper held flat on his binder, on his lap.

"Nope, thanks to you, I actually understand that weird thing they do with tenses," He smiled at her and she grinned back.

"Good, now you can help me with this quadratic stuff." She waved several pieces of lined paper in the air, covered in equations, all done in English numbers. Keitaro frowned. Now he'd have problems checking her work.

"Sorry Keitaro," said Mariko, noticing the pained look on his face as he took her homework from her and began to go over it, "It's just easier for me that way,"

"It's alright," replied Keitaro absently, already half-way through the first problem, "I suppose it helps me too," catching sight of the mischievous look on her face he backtracked, "but _PLEASE _don't do it in English all the time… You need practice doing it in Japanese too,"

Mariko laughed at his pleading expression.

"Okay, Okay, I'll make an effort to do it in Japanese too,"

"Good, because I'm not the only one who need practice with another language," murmured Keitaro with a grin, bending forward and using a mechanical pencil to make corrections.

* * *

Shippou returned an hour later with some choice cuts of venison, and by then, Miroku had a fire stoked and burning hot. Keitaro quickly scraped the bark off several branches of a tree with his claws, drove them into the ground on either side of the fire and skewered the meat with a third bark less stick and hung it so that it was suspended over the fire by the other two sticks.

Shippou looked a little disgruntled that Keitaro had come up with a way to efficiently cook the meat faster than he had, but shook it off quickly as he sat down next to Mariko, who was now doing her history homework with one of those 'snake' flashlights wrapped around her neck so she could see what she was writing.

"What is that?" asked Shippou, squinting at the writing with a puzzled expression.

"My history assignment, I have to compare the feudal systems of Europe and Japan and write about which one that I felt worked better,"

"Why is the writing so strange? There's some kanji, but the rest of it I can't read,"

"It's called hiragana, it's a simpler writing system that people in our country use along with Kanji," replied Mariko, before she wrote something on the corner of her paper, "See? That's your name in Hiragana… Or roughly what you name would be written like,"

"Ah," said Shippou pensively, studying the characters intently as though he was an archeologist looking over hieroglyphs that were fresh from an Egyptian tomb. Keitaro resisted the temptation to roll his eyes as he did his science homework by the firelight. Across the fire, Miroku sat cross-legged, with his eyes closed. Keitaro could tell that his heartbeat had slowed somewhat. He was meditating.

"Food's ready," remarked Keitaro, awhile later as the smell of fully cooked meat perforated his nostrils. Shippou leaped forward to pluck the venison off the fire and began dividing it up equally among the four of them and making small shish kebabs.

Keitaro noted with a frown that he had been handed the charred bits, but decided not to comment as he bit into it, quickly eating it all.

"Shippou, did you see any onsens while you were hunting?" asked Mariko, looking up from her food, "I really need a bath – I stink,"

_No you don't… _Thought Keitaro, glancing towards her and inhaling.

"You don't stink," said Shippou with a grin, "but I saw one east of here, I could take you there," Mariko smiled and nodded.

_Damn. _

"Shippou, can I talk to you for a second?" asked Keitaro coldly, rising to his feet and pushing his way into the bushes, away from the fire. Both Shippou and Mariko shot his retreating back surprised glances.

"Sure Keitaro," replied Shippou, smirking, "Right behind you,"

Keitaro walked until he could no longer smell the smoke from the fire, nor see its light, before turning to face the Kitsune. They stood like that for a minute or two, meeting each other's eyes solidly. Shippou quirked an eyebrow and crossed his arms irritably, Keitaro could see his furry tail twitching.

"Well? What is it Keitaro? Is it anything important or should I just leave?"

"It's important alright," he replied coldly, "Stop it Shippou, Mariko isn't going to become one of your futon warmers,"

"What are you going to do about it?" replied Shippou in a rough voice, "She isn't yours."

Keitaro's teeth ground together in irritation.

"Either way, would you just stop it!" he demanded, resisting his inu-side's impulse to grab Shippou by the neck, run him into a tree and scratch him up nicely.

"Why should I? You havn't marked her as your mate, she's fair game to the rest of us," shot back Shippou smugly.

"Marked…?" Keitaro asked, puzzled, but at the same cursing the fact that he had to rely on the Kitsune for information about something he should have already known.

"Yeah, Blood mark – exchange – whatever you call it,"

At Keitaro's blank look, the kitsune snorted and huffed irritably.

"Figures, Inuyasha didn't know that much about it either, but it's basically blood exchange between mates. Either way, Mariko's free until she's marked, and I don't think that'll happen with you guys anytime soon, if it ever does, so I'll have my fun now,"

Seething, Keitaro's fists clenched and unclenched, leaving bloody crescent moons on his palms.

"But, If she's marked…" he said leadingly and Shippou shot him a dirty look.

"No one but her mate can touch her pretty much… Something about the mark is an instinctive deterrent, beyond that, I don't know all that much, like how well it works on humans," he smirked, flashing a bit of fang just as Keitaro had done and strode away, back to where they made camp.

Keitaro slumped back against a tree, struggling to reign in his emotions. He desperately wanted to rend Shippou limb from limb, but he knew that wasn't an option, even if his ethics hadn't been so against it. Rubbing his eyes, he made a resolution to go ask the older Shippou for advice, he seemed to be a lot nicer and if he remembered correctly, he had smelled only one woman on him.

With a sigh, he walked back to camp, only discover with irritation that only Miroku was still there. Shippou had taken Mariko to the hot spring.

Noticing the expression on the hanyou's face as he sat down, Miroku gave him a sympathetic look.

"If he tries anything, I'm going to hurt him, maybe remove that tail of his," vowed Keitaro with a snarl.

"I don't think he will," remarked Miroku pensively, "Shippou does have ethics, even if you can't see them,"

"Oh, so he waits a week instead of a day before he screws someone?" shot back Keitaro caustically, crossing his arms and scowling. Miroku had to suppress a grin at how much the boy resembled Inuyasha with the way he was acting.

"No," replied Miroku, "You say you can see auras now?"

Keitaro nodded, a solemn expression on his face.

"Which auras do you see?" asked the monk.

"What do you mean which auras?"

"There are roughly three, The aura that someone has because they either have spiritual powers or they are of youkai blood, I know you can see this one, then there is a life-force aura, but it's not an actual aura per say, more of a way of judging how much life something or someone has-"

"It's the heat sensor one," remarked Keitaro, recognizing what the monk was talking about.

"Heat sensor?" asked Miroku in a puzzled voice.

"Well, people and demons are like reddish-orange colour, unless they're sick or dying, because then they could be like yellow or green… right? And plants and stuff can be yellow or green…. Something that's near death is like blue and when it dies, it turns black… right?"

Miroku nodded.

"Yes, that's it," he said, "Most youkai see that anyways,"

"I didn't," answered Keitaro, shifting uncomfortably, "and even now, I can't see it unless it's dark… So what is the third aura exactly?"

"Actually, the third aura is the actual aura… The two others aren't really auras, but they are called that for the lack of a better thing to identify them by,"

"I see," replied Keitaro, raising an eyebrow, "It's the one I see around your head and body right?"

"Yes,"

"Well, what about it?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow.

* * *

Mariko grinned when she saw the hot spring. It was a large pool, with boulders scattered about and it looked reasonably shallow.

Quickly stripping off her weapons and clothes, she slid in and sank below the surface, before coming up again to look around. She had left Shippou in a clearing a ways away with the threat that she would cut off his tail if he tried to spy on her.

Humming softly to herself, she reached for her soap and began to lather up, scrubbing her arms and neck, when suddenly she heard a splash behind her.

"Who the hell are you?" demanded a woman's cold voice.

Mariko gasped and turned around just as a slim, buxom woman with long black hair appeared from behind one of the boulders. The woman's red eyes were narrowed into slits and her mouth was pulled into an angry snarl.

"Answer me!" She flicked her hand and Mariko's eyes widened as she saw a large crackle of electricity leap from the woman's hand to the water.

_Oh… Shit…_

* * *

Author's note: For the auras, I used these two websites for references…. I don't know if they're 'right' but I took interpretations and mixed them up a little.... I just realized that they were edited out in document manager.... look in my profile instead! 

And to my : 

Whimsy007: I hope this chapter cleared up a question or two of yours (This site is being irritating, because it says I have 12 reviews, but only shows 9 or 11 of them, depending on when I log in…so sorry if I missed someone)  
Kyonarai  
Pagansedjou 

Brokenhope

Tom : What on earth does Semper fidelus mean? Just curious….


	11. Chapter 10

Sorry I took so long with this guys!

**Chapter 10**

Mariko yelped as the electricity shocked her painfully and dropped her soap as her body convulsed from the contact.

It hit the water with a plop and promptly sank.

The woman scowled at her, her red eyes glittering. Mariko swallowed nervously, feeling suddenly very cold in the warm onsen. Her body ached from the electrical shock and she knew that her hair was fried. In a way, she was surprised that she wasn't dead.

"Well?" said the demoness disdainfully, glaring down her small nose at her, "who are you?"

Mariko couldn't really speak, she was still speechless with surprise and recovering from the shocking. Here she had been, minding her own business, taking a bath and suddenly she's zapped by God knows how many volts of electricity and some pompous demoness demands to know who she is and what she's doing in the demoness' onsen… Mariko shook her head, trying to reign in the instinct to scream for help.

"To scared to speak human?" demanded the woman, tossing her magnificent head slightly and red lips pursing into a slightly annoyed expression. Mariko glanced at her sword and fans on the bank, no more than a metre away.

"Oh, so you think you could poke me with that little sword of yours, ne?" taunted the demoness with an amused grin, following her gaze.

Mariko shook her head. She knew that she didn't have a chance. At least she wasn't dead, Perhaps this demoness wasn't interested in scorching her off the face of the earth.

"My name's Fujita Mariko," she said, finally regaining her voice and bowing respectfully, "I didn't know this was your spring, Gomen nasai… My friend saw it earlier and brought me here, because I wanted to take a bath,"

"I see," said the demoness in a slightly bored voice, sinking back down into the warm water "It's not my spring by the way,"

"Oh… I thought…" Mariko stopped herself before saying anything more. Instead, she dropped her gaze and began studying the bottom of the pool, trying to see where her soap bar went. Locating it, she held her breath, sank down under the water, and snatched it up, before surfacing once more. She glanced at the demoness and realized with a twinge of apprehension that the woman was watching her.

"You're not scared of me girl, are you?" said the demoness smoothly, raising an eyebrow.

"Um…. Not really, just really nervous," replied Mariko uneasily, still shivering a little, "Getting shocked with electricity isn't pleasant,"

"Neither is having your bath intruded upon,"

"Well, just be happy I'm a girl too, not some hentai bastard playing peeping Tom," answered Mariko, rolling her eyes. The demoness nodded her head slightly.

"You have a point, human girl," she acquiesced.

"I have a name you know," said Mariko with a frown, "By the way, what's yours?"

The demoness fixed her with a stern expression for a few moments, before answering;

"Souten,"

"Well… um… Nice to meet you Souten, How about I just quickly finish washing and leave?"

"Very well," replied Souten, turning away.

Quicker than she ever thought possible, Mariko fumbled for her tiny bottle of shampoo and washed her hair, dunking in the onsen to rinse out the suds. Within a minute, she clambered out of the onsen, rapidly toweled herself dry and dressed and buckled the belt that held her weapons around her waist.

"Those are a Taijiya's weapons," remarked Souten. Mariko glanced up, surprised.

"How did you know?" she asked.

"They are made of bones," replied Souten with a faint frown, "Are you a Taijiya?"

"Sort of… I'm apprenticed to one," answered Mariko apprehensively as she adjusted the belt so that it sat comfortably on top of her hips.

"You are a demon slayer and I am a demon, yet you didn't try to kill me, Aren't you breaking some moral code of yours, human?" said Souten, her red eyes narrowing, a nasty smirk on her face.

Mariko shrugged, her fear vanishing despite the expression on the demon woman's face.

"I don't like killing people, and I know that not all youkai are bad, and since you didn't really try to kill me, I figured you must be an Okay demon, besides, if I had made any move for my sword, you'd have zapped me so hard that I'd probably be charred to a crisp. I'm not stupid. Water conducts electricity,"

"I see," replied Souten noncommittally, her brow furrowing slightly as she noticed the pink jewel that the girl removed from a pouch in her clothing and place around her neck.

"Yah… um… Bye!" Mariko walked away, albeit at a quicker pace than she normally did.

* * *

When she had reached the small clearing where she had left Shippou, she found it empty and still.

"Shippou?" she called out curiously, "You there?"

There was a rustle above her, to the right and Shippou dropped down from a nearby tree, looking distinctly taken aback.

"That was a quick bath," he said in a surprised voice, "I thought you'd be longer, Kagome and Sango always took ages it seemed,"

"Nah…" replied Mariko, deciding not to mention Souten, "Let's head back, Keitaro's probably wondering where we are," She began to walk in roughly the direction that she thought their camp was.

"I told Miroku where we were going," protested Shippou, sliding an arm around her shoulders and pulling her closer so that her walking direction changed nearly 20 degrees to the right. "Camp's this way," he said with an amused grin, "You don't want to get lost, do you?"

Mariko eyed hand that rested on her left shoulder for a moment with a slightly nonplussed expression and then frowned when Shippou didn't let go. Reaching up, she lifted his hand off her shoulder, stepped out from under his arm, and let go of it so that it dropped beck to his side.

"Thanks for pointing me in the right direction Shippou," she said with a small smile and began walking in the direction that he had indicated. With a frown and a shrug, Shippou followed, looking somewhat disgruntled.

* * *

"So, you're saying all these aura colours tell us what someone's personality is like and sort of like what they're going through at the moment?"

"Precisely," replied Miroku with a smile, "It takes time to learn the different interpretations of the colours though,"

"Well, that shouldn't be to hard to figure it all out… I have a pretty good memory," answered Keitaro, a pensive look on his face, before he spoke up once more; "What does jade green mean?"

Miroku didn't get a chance to reply.

_Ffffffffffffpppppphszzzzzzziiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinggggggggggggg_

Keitaro jumped straight into the air, startled as a figure suddenly dropped out of the sky. In an instant, his sword was drawn as he took in the sight of the woman before him. She wore a flowing blue hakama and white kimono with red detailing. Her breastplate was made of a silvery metal and her hakama knot was an intricate one. Every inch of her oozed high-class nobility, with her glittering red eyes and raven black hair that seemed to crackle with electricity. She was youkai of high status without any doubt. She hovered above the campfire by the means of fiery wheels that seemed to be attached to her feet and she held an elegant trident, made of metal and a dark, polished wood.

Miroku had risen to his feet with a wary expression on his face and he held his staff so tightly that his knuckles turned white and he rubbed the hand that had once possessed his Kazaana nervously. The only sign of the wind tunnel now was a circular scar on the monk's right hand.

"Who are _you?"_ demanded Keitaro, glaring at the newcomer, ready to start swinging if the youkai female made a wrong move.

"Don't worry yourself hanyou, I'm looking for a girl who was here," replied the youkai woman calmly, "She has something that interests me."

"Whatever the hell it is, _you're _not getting it," snarled Keitaro, edging around the clearing as he noticed Mariko and Shippou's scents on the air. He heard the bushes across the fire from him rustle as Mariko stepped into the clearing, followed by Shippou.

"Souten!" gasped Mariko, her eyes widening, "What are you doing here?"

"Souten?" inquired Miroku curiously, raising an eyebrow.

"_Souten!_" cried Shippou, his jaw dropping open, his tail fluffing out like a bottle brush and his eyes widening to nearly comical proportions.

"Who…?" asked Keitaro, puzzled, still holding his katana at ready. There was a reigning silence as the Demoness Souten studied each member of the party in turn with a something of a stunned expression. Starting at Mariko, she worked her way around, slowly rotating in the air on the fire-wheel things.

Her gaze seemed to change when it finally landed on Shippou, softening almost imperceptibly, before sliding across to him.

"You're the son of Inuyasha and the Lady Kagome," said Souten in a tone of voice that was completely laden with disinterest. Keitaro wasn't fooled.

"Yes, I am Higurashi Keitaro," he answered with a nod, still eyeing her warily.

"I am Souten of the mighty Thunder clan," she announced, in such a way that it was though she expected them to throw themselves at her feet in worship. No one moved.

"May I add that you are the _last _of the Thunder clan?" muttered Miroku under his breath.

Keitaro couldn't hold back the snort of laughter that suddenly welled up in his system as Souten twitched visibly. Her staff was suddenly upright, instead of held lazily at her side and she had drawn herself up to her full height, which wasn't exactly impressive. Keitaro knew that despite the fact that she hovered at about his eye level with those crazy wheels of hers, she was still a good six inches shorter than he was; which ironically, amounted to her being an inch shorter than Mariko.

_Funny.__ The dangerous ones always come wrapped in tiny packages, _Thought Keitaro with a grin. This was going to be interesting.

Souten was rapidly changing colours, from a pale skin tone that was made sallow by the firelight, it rapidly flushed a bright, cherry red. Crimson eyes narrowed as she glared at him.

She couldn't seem to think of anything to say though.

"So, you're the last of your clan?" asked Mariko curiously, "Is that why you were all alone at the hot spring?"

Souten's gaze shifted so that she was staring at Mariko out of the corner of her eyes before she nodded.

Mariko grimaced.

"That's gotta really suck," she said, "Why don't you travel with us?"

"WHAT!" yelped Shippou, his tail exhibiting the Bottle-Brush effect once more.

"You've got to be kidding me," replied Keitaro with a groan as he squeezed his eye shut for a moment and massaged the bridge of his nose. A sense of dread hung over the inu-hanyou's shoulders like a wet blanket. Miroku stayed silent, but appeared shaken at the thought of Mariko's proposition.

"What's with you guys?" demanded Mariko, "She hasn't got anyone sticking out for her,"

A small, sly smirk appeared on Souten's face, unnoticed by those around her.

"She doesn't _need _anyone to stick up for her," retorted Keitaro darkly, sheathing his sword and crossing his arms, "Look at her, No one's going to mess with her when she's looking like that!" Souten's smile promptly vanished and a pitiable look took hold of her face. She dropped lower, so that she hovered just off the ground.

"Well, has she got anywhere else to go?" replied Mariko, her voice hard and her hands on her hips. The dangerous glint in her blue eyes brokered no argument.

Keitaro raised a questioning eyebrow in Souten's direction and the crimson-eyed demoness shook her head, a gesture that seemed distinctly out of place from what one would assume the woman's normal repertoire of motions. Something about her aura didn't sit to well with him either.

For a moment, he cast a glance at Miroku, silently asking the monk for his opinion. In reply, Miroku gave a helpless shake of the head and a shrug from where he stood just behind and out of sight of Souten. He didn't know what to make of the demoness either. For the moment, he was trying not to think about how good-looking she was.

Getting no help from Miroku, Keitaro made a series of lightning fast decisions.

"You can travel with us if you wish Souten. Just know this, I don't trust you. I don't think I ever will, short of a miracle occurring and I'll be watching. Try anything towards _any_ of us and I won't hesitate to kill you," snapped Keitaro, "We'll share our food and supplies, but if we're attacked, don't expect anyone to watch your back,"

"Very well," replied Souten, suppressing a smile.

_Fool… _she thought.

* * *

As they settled down for the night, Keitaro neglected his sleeping bag in favour of sitting awake by the fire, his katana on his lap and his eyes were darting about, scanning the bushes. His white ears twitched and swiveled towards every rustle that he heard. He doubted he had ever been so highly strung before.

Consciously, he had sat down next to Mariko's sleeping bag, intent on keeping watch over her. To his right, Shippou slept curled in a ball, having transformed into his elegant kitsune form and to his left and sitting slightly away from the fire, Miroku slept leaning against a tree, covered in a fleece blanket and snoring softly. Across the fire, Souten sat silently, her crimson eyes hooded, yet Keitaro wasn't sure if she was actually sleeping or not.

He glanced down at Mariko, but noted with pang of amusement that he could only see her hair. The rest of her had sunk down into the bag. Reaching out, he stroked the strands of hair gently, but stopped when Mariko stirred and rolled over in the sleeping bag, mumbling something that sounded like "Go _away _Akihiro…"

Quietly he watched her for another few minutes, before shifting closer and reaching out to touch her hair once more. He brought a longer stand to his nose and inhaled the sweet scent, and noted that she was coming into heat again, which could be considered both a good thing and bad thing. The good thing was that it made her smell even better than she usually did and the bad thing… or more bad _things…_ One was that a few days after she cycled out of heat, she became increasingly irritable and often took out her frustration out on his ears – the only part of his body where she could actually injure him and the other was the fox demon on his right. Without a doubt, he'd have a harder time keeping the kitsune in line. He knew from experience that the intoxicating scent was difficult to resist.

The night dragged on and Keitaro watched the gibbous moon meander across the sky, his thoughts wandering between abstract wonderings and sudden periods of hyper-awareness when he heard a leaf rustle or a rabbit move.

As he calmed down after one of those periods, he studied the moon's pockmarked surface pensively. As far as he knew, he had never had a human night, when his youkai powers faded and he became a normal human. Perhaps fate had decided that he had enough human blood to contend with and didn't need to loose his youkai side once or twice a month to remind him of how powerless and venerable he could be at times.

After what seemed like forever, Keitaro saw the gray line along the eastern horizon that marked that dawn was approaching and he looked forward to it.

As the dawn chorus began, Shippou's fox ears flickered and he opened his eyes. The fox demon sat up, so to speak, so that he was sitting on his haunches, much as actual dogs did.

Shippou, unable to speak properly in his kitsune form, gave the smoldering leftovers of the fire a pointed look and then glanced around at the three still sleeping and made motion that indicating eating.

"I'll stoke it up, if you don't mind catching and cleaning breakfast," replied Keitaro dryly. Hunting was still something he didn't enjoy all that much. Shippou nodded silently and disappeared into the trees, leaving a slight rustling in his wake.

Standing up, Keitaro scoured the ground for dry sticks and twigs under the bushes next to their camp. He dropped a bundle of them on the fire, arranged and struck a match. When Shippou returned an hour later with three cleaned and skinned rabbits, Keitaro had already rigged an apparatus to cook them and Souten had woken up and was polishing her staff. Or, at least, that's what Keitaro figured she was doing as she continued to rub the metal part of it vigorously with a soft cloth. She hadn't said anything though.

It was approaching eight O'clock when the rabbits had finally cooked properly and Mariko woke herself up by some sudden movement in a dream of hers.

"Ohayo" said Keitaro, poking her lightly as she sat up, her long dark hair matted and falling in her face. Her blue eyes took a moment to focus on him after she had rubbed the sleep out of them.

"Good Morning to you too…" she murmured foggily, blowing her bangs upwards with a puff of air. Slowly, she clambered out of her sleeping bag and dug around in her backpack for several minutes, before pulling out a hairbrush and set to work on the knots while sitting cross-legged on her sleeping bag.

"How far are we from the next village Miroku?" asked Keitaro, turning from her to where the monk sat.

"Half day's walk," replied Miroku solemnly, "If it's still there."

"Why wouldn't it be there?" asked Souten pointedly, her ruby-coloured eyes trained on the monk.

"There's a rogue youkai on the loose, destroying villages. It's be moving further West and we're going to go slay it," replied Keitaro as he divided up and served breakfast, "hopefully before it kills any more people,"

"They say it might have Shikon shard," added Mariko as she rolled up her sleeping bag and stuffed it in her backpack. Keitaro winced and his ears flattened against his skull with irritation. He had been aiming at leaving Souten ignorant to the fact that they were after the few remaining Shikon shards. Souten perked up immediately and her eyes lost the chilling edge that they had possessed.

"Interested in the Shikon jewel, are you now Souten?" asked Miroku pointedly, before Keitaro could comment scathingly. Souten was silent and there was a stubborn set to her jaw. Shippou sat silently in his kitsune form, watching, his tail occasionally flicking. It was unnerving to see the fox demon like that, for normally he was the type to keep talking. And talking. And talking; If you let him.

Shippou watched Souten with an inscrutable glare, his vibrant green eyes narrowed and his narrow golden-orange ears trained on her, his mouth pulled into a delicate frown and suddenly, Keitaro got the impression that there was something more between these two youkai, but for the moment, that wasn't what he was worried about. If Souten tried to steal the jewel and hurt Mariko in the process…

"If you want the Shikon jewel, you're not getting it, no matter how much you try to buddy up to us Souten, if that was your plan," he ground out, his lip curling back.

"Who said that was my plan?" replied Souten coolly, "I don't need that jewel,"

"Uh huh. Sure. You just decided to accept Mariko's invitation, even though there were humans in the group, who are insignificant to youkai like yourself… you know… of the higher caste and despite the fact that you are of so called 'noble' blood, you have 'nowhere' to go and you need us to protect you," replied Keitaro levelly, his voice icy.

"Watch how you speak to me, lowly _hanyou_!" snapped Souten angrily. There was a taught silence, broken only by a short, rumbling growl from Keitaro.

"Tsk tsk," murmured Miroku under his breath as he ate, "Keitaro is the grandson of the Great Inu no taisho Toga of the Western Lands and the son of Inuyasha, who defeated both your brothers in battle Souten, and he is the nephew of Sesshoumaru, the current Lord of the Western Lands. His youkai blood, though diluted, is of a race and caste far superior to the Thunder clan, in both influence and strength."

Both Souten and Keitaro jumped at this information and even Shippou and Mariko looked mildly surprised. Keitaro resisted the sudden temptation to stick his tongue out at Souten in the childish way of saying "Ha! I win!"

Instead, he settled for a slight smirk to grace his features, knowing that the expression would irritate the demoness more than anything else, but at the same time, he felt a twinge of sympathy towards her.

_Otou-san killed her brothers? I'm surprised she didn't kill me on sight… Wait… the Thunder clan…I recognize that… Didn't the thunder brothers murder Shippou's father? Now did my eyes deceive me last night or did I see how she was watching Shippou? Oh boy, this is going to be an interesting mess…_

Climbing to his feet, Keitaro began kicking dirt into the fire.

"We should get going if we want to cover any ground today," he announced, slinging his small knapsack onto his back.

"Yeah," replied Mariko, putting on her backpack also. Miroku stood and brushed the dirt off his robes and there was a flash as Shippou suddenly reappeared in front of them in his humanoid form.

"Couldn't agree more," he said quietly, still frowning at Souten, who had activated her wheels and was now hovering a metre or so off the ground. Without much fanfare, the motley group set out, heading North West along one of the dirt packed roads that crisscrossed the country side.

* * *

The going was rough, for the heaven's decided to cloud and dump buckets of rain on them around ten O'clock, making the road a muddy lane of quicksand and essentially wiping out the effectiveness of Keitaro's sense of smell. Mariko was the only one who had a jacket and it wasn't a very good one at that. Keitaro shed his running shoes and socks and slung them over his shoulder by the laces, before switching them to around his neck when Mariko ended up tripping on a root and falling face first into the muck and puddles. So he ended up carrying her on his back as he jumped from tree to tree while Shippou and Miroku helped each other in picking their way through the mud.

Only Souten seemed completely untroubled by the rain and difficult to navigate road. She had zoomed along ahead above the trees, on the pretense of scouting out the road. Keitaro made occasional bounds high up into the air to check to see if she was still in sight.

Three cold hours later, they caught sight of their destination, a slightly larger than normal village which had a reputation for producing excellent clay bowls. The leopard youkai had apparently been harassing their village continuously, and the two village mikos had barely been able to stave him off. Lookouts had been placed around the village's perimeter and the fields looked unkempt and trampled.

Putting on a burst of speed, Keitaro caught up with Souten and they both landed at the edge of the village. It was at that moment Keitaro saw the barrier that had been put up as the lookouts began shouting.

"Souten!" he hollered, "Get back or you're going to get fried!"

Souten shot him a haughty glance and kept going, only hit the barrier and with a sinister sizzling noise, she was catapulted backwards several metres into the mud. Whether she hadn't seen it, or hadn't thought it would affect her, Keitaro wasn't sure.

With an angry hiss, Souten was on her feet again and charging up her staff, ready to take out the barrier and kill whoever had forced her to suffer such an indignity.

Swearing, Keitaro let go of Mariko and she slid off his back and took a running leap forwards, tackling Souten in the midsection just as she was about to let loose a barrage of energy from her trident. With a crackling of static energy that made Keitaro's long hair stand on end, the attack was deflected into the ground as they both crashed into the mud, with Souten screaming obscenities. Keitaro snatched her staff away from her and lightly flipped away, landing in a crouch.

"IDIOT!" he bellowed, "We need shelter here and you just screwed that up for us!"

"Give me back my trident _hanyou_!" snarled Souten, rushing him. Keitaro easily bounded out of the way, but found out immediately that he need not have done so.

"_Kitsune Youjutsu!_"

A large top knocked into Souten, catching one of her flaming wheels and spun her around a few times before sending her sailing off into a mud puddle, ripping the wheel clean off her boot, causing it to drop to the ground with a clang and extinguish itself.

Keitaro couldn't help but grin as Shippou stalked up, followed by Miroku.

"Nice one,"

"No problem," replied Shippou distractedly as he strode by to where Souten was on her feet and covered head to toe in mud, to angry to do anything but stand there, clenching and unclenching her fists.

"How dare you…" she ground out, shaking with rage.

"How dare I what?" replied Shippou, crossing his arms, "I can do whatever I like to someone who's trying to wipe out a village just because they were too stupid not to notice the Holy barrier. That was always one of your failings Souten. That arrogance. It's what drove away your allies, drove away me and got you covered in mud,"

"Shut up Shippou, you were lucky to get under my guard,"

"What guard? You didn't even notice Miroku and I, you weren't even paying attention," shot back Shippou caustically, "It's what got Koryuu killed, because you didn't notice that he was in trouble." Keitaro and Mariko exchanged glances with Miroku.

"Maybe I don't need to notice," growled Souten, "I'm powerful enough to take on anyone,"

When Mariko sneezed violently as the two youkai continued to argue in the pouring rain, Keitaro decided that he had heard enough. Stepping forward as he twirled Souten's staff in his left hand like a baton, he came up to stand beside Shippou.

"Yah, you can take on any _one _person… but what about two? Remember, I've got your trident and I'm not too keen about giving it back," he said quietly, "Unless you do some major apologizing to the villagers and Mariko for making them stand out here in the rain,"

Souten glowered at them, the rage that coursed through her body made her as tense as coiled spring. Keitaro raised an eyebrow.

"I'm waiting," he said with a smirk.

"I apologize to _NO ONE!"_ screamed Souten. Several of the villagers watching the spectacle from the safe side of their barrier winced. Keitaro noticed two figures garbed in red and white among the assembled crowd.

"Suit yourself," replied Keitaro with a shrug, walking over to Mariko and bending down so that she could climb onto his back. "C'mon Shippou - Miroku, let's leave her out here without it for a night and see if she wants to say sorry in the morning when she figures out how nerve wracking it is to be stuck outside in the dark with no real weapons and a mad leopard youkai stalking her,"

Mariko gasped faintly at his announcement, but didn't say much else as she rested her head on his shoulder, feeling utterly worn out. Miroku and Shippou followed Keitaro silently, curious to see what he would do.

When he reached the edge of the barrier, his eyes sought out the miko's in the crowd. There were two, a wizened and thin older woman in her fifties at least and her young apprentice, who looked about fourteen or fifteen.

"My name is Keitaro, son of Inuyasha and the Lady Kagome, Good priestesses," he said, bowing as low as he could without dislodging Mariko. "My companions and I heard that your village and several other have been harassed or destroyed by a leopard youkai and we wish to aid you slay it, but for the moment, I wish to request shelter for the benefit of my companions, particularly Mariko," he continued, nodding to the girl who had suddenly fallen asleep on his shoulder.

The elder miko stepped forward and scrutinized him carefully.

"Inuyasha and Lady Kagome… I have heard those names before boy," She murmured pensively, "Mostly in stories… they have passed on to the next world then?"

Keitaro nodded.

"I heard great things about them and their companions and how they destroyed the evil hanyou Naraku," continued the old miko, "They were a monk, a Taijiya and a kitsune, am I correct?"

Keitaro nodded again, starting to feel impatient. Rain streamed down his face and into his eyes and soaked his hair and he, despite the fact that he was a hanyou, was starting to feel uncomfortable in his saturated jeans and drenched T-shirt. He didn't even want to guess what Mariko and Miroku felt like.

"Yes," he replied shortly, "The said monk and kitsune are standing behind me,"

"They are?" asked the miko in a surprised voice, stepping to the side to peer around him, for she was too short too see over his shoulder. Several of the villagers also began to give Miroku and Shippou curious and interested looks.

Miroku stepped forward and bowed. Shippou inclined his head slightly.

"I am Miroku, and this is Shippou," he said with a motion of his hand towards the Kitsune.

"Well met, Miroku and Shippou," replied the miko, "but what about that demoness over there… she is a dangerous one,"

"Souten will learn her lesson," answered Keitaro stoutly.

"Are you truly the son of Inuyasha then?" asked the miko suspiciously. There was a round of muttering from the assembled villagers.

"What? Yes!" replied Keitaro, quite taken aback.

"The stories that I heard of Inuyasha say he was most loyal, and would never leave a friend to fend for themselves," answered the miko, her eyes narrowing. Keitaro's mouth opened and closed several times, at a loss of what to say. _Well… Just because I'm his son doesn't mean I'm like him… I think… ummm… _

"Souten is not a friend, merely a travel companion until she learns to curb her arrogance and control her temper," said Shippou darkly, glaring over his shoulder at the hissing, mud stained figure standing several dozen metres away.

"I see," replied the old miko with a raised eyebrow, "Well then, perhaps the demoness should learn to be humble, come, you may find shelter in our village if you say the reason that you are here is that you wish to slay the demon that troubles us,"

With her words, she nodded to her young apprentice and a door sized gap appeared in the barrier. Keitaro strode through it, followed by Miroku and Shippou.

* * *

Several minutes later, Keitaro, Shippou and Miroku were listening to the old miko in her hut as they ate rice and pork soup from earthenware bowls. Mariko was sleeping on the miko's futon, having stopped coughing almost as soon as she had been brought into the warm little hut.

"The Leopard youkai has been alternately attacking our village and two villages to the north for the past two weeks. The four other villages that used to be in this area have been destroyed, because they didn't have any sort of protection. They used to rely on us for exorcisms and other demon related affairs," explained Youmi, the old miko. Takako, her young apprentice was making rounds of the village, 'recharging' the stones that anchored the barrier. The two miko's were rapidly tiring of the monumental task of keeping the barrier operational enough to cover all of the forty-odd huts in the village, sheltering just over a hundred people.

"Have you sensed anything odd about this leopard youkai? The presence of a Shikon shard perhaps?" asked Miroku cautiously. Youmi nodded slowly.

"Yes… There is something odd about the energy of this youkai… I sense a glimmer of another power… yet I do not know whether it is a Shikon shard or not," she replied pensively, "It is an unpredictable monster, and we havn't seen it in over two days. I presume it must be harassing one of the other villages," Youmi concluded wearily.

"Do you have any idea of what it is after?" asked Keitaro curiously, "I mean, does it have a reason for attacking the villages?"

"It does not need a reason, Boy, It is a youkai," she answered softly. Shippou scowled.

"Everyone has a reason for doing something, I don't think this youkai suddenly said 'Hey, I feel like destroying a few villages'. It just doesn't sit right…from the descriptions that you told us, right after we came in here, I don't think this guy is some random low-class demon" replied Keitaro with a frown, "You said he had a star on his forehead?"

"Yes," said Youmi, "between his eyes, I only saw it for a moment as it was flailing against our barrier, The youkai is large… taller than three huts put together,"

Keitaro nodded, thinking hard.

"Miroku… Do you know anything about the other demon lords?" he suddenly asked.

Miroku looked startled.

"Only rumors," replied the monk, "Why?"

"Do you know what clans govern the North, East and South?" Keitaro inquired once more, his mouth pursed thoughtfully and his ears flicking about.

"Actually Keitaro, the power is not divided as such," answered Miroku. Keitaro's eyebrows shot up.

"Really? Then how is it? They don't exactly cover the demon land holdings in history class… All I really know is that the Inu clan governs the western side of Honshu," answered the inu-hanyou wryly.

"Well, I know the Yourouzoku Wolves hold Northern Honshu, but the Thunder clan used to have a small portion of it also; the Laimei Valley, before Inuyasha killed Hiten and Manten," replied Miroku, thinking hard, "and the Eagle clan possess most of Hokkaido… A clan of serpents govern Kyushu I believe. Shikoku is held by the Fire youkai. Eastern Honshu is governed mostly by the – Oh my…" Miroku's eyes widened.

"Who is this area governed by? I know I don't really keep track. They all bow down to Sesshoumaru either way," said Shippou. Keitaro shot the kitsune a bemused look.

"They do?"

Both Miroku and Shippou nodded.

"All the demon lords keep track of their own lands and for the most part, they govern separately from the daimyo, but when it comes to the important stuff… They all look to Sesshoumaru. He has the largest territory and he's the strongest of them. He caused quite a stir a few years back when he took Rin for his mate. Everyone was thinking he was getting weak and whatever, but he showed them," replied Shippou with a laugh.

"Rin? Who's that?" Keitaro asked, confused.

"Ningen girl…Or woman now, I suppose; either way, it's a long story, involving Tensaiga and the Youroukozu," replied Miroku, "I heard news that they actually have a daughter now,"

"Whowhatwhenwherehuh?" Keitaro's mind was whirling with all this new information. Even Youmi was looking somewhat confused at the facts that the Monk and Kitsune were shooting back and forth.

"Really?" asked Shippou.

"Yes…" replied Miroku.

"How old?"

Keitaro was distracted from their conversation by a change in Mariko's breathing patterns and rustling noises from the futon. Turning, he smiled when he saw that she was awake and sitting up.

"Feeling better?" he asked.

"Yah… what's that good smell?" she replied, sliding out of the futon's quilts and coming to sit next to him by the small fire pit in Youmi's hut.

"Rice and pork," he replied, offering her a bowl of the soup and some chopsticks. She accepted them with a grateful smile and set to work on eating.

"Is Souten still out there?" she asked in a concerned voice between mouthfuls.

Keitaro nodded.

"She is standing where you left her," answered Youmi enigmatically, "Still quite angry I'm afraid,"

"Maybe I should go and talk to her when I'm finished eating…" said Mariko quietly. Miroku, Shippou and Keitaro all shot her horrified looks.

"No!" they all said vehemently in unison.

"Why not? Her weapon is right there," demanded Mariko irately, "Besides, I'm a girl too, she'd probably be more open with me". A sharp laugh came from Shippou and he muttered something that distinctively sounded like "Yah right,"

"Keh" snorted Keitaro, "You're not going out there, you'll just start coughing again and that's not even taking into consideration the large Leopard youkai that's been killing people left and right for the past two weeks."

"I don't think it's going to show up in the next ten minutes," shot back Mariko, setting down her bowl, pulling her coat on and standing up. Keitaro was on his feet in an instant, standing in her way.

"What's your problem Keitaro?" she demanded, her voice sharp and her eyes an icy blue, "If I want to go out there, I'm going out there. Souten doesn't deserve to just be left out there, even if she's being a complete bitch,"

Recognizing the Death tone in her voice, Keitaro backed down and Mariko pushed past him and out the door, Keitaro stuck his head out the door and watched her disappear into the inky blackness of night, his sensitive ears picking up her splashing footsteps and Shippou's whispered comment;

"Wow, She can't even Sit him and he's still scared of her"

* * *

And my reviewers:

Tom: Neat! And no… my teachers don't tell us about the marine corps (This might be because I live in Canada, but I'm not entirely sure.) I don't know all that much about the military, to tell you the truth, with the exception of what my two friends who are in army cadets tell me and some of the books I read. I feel sort of honoured though, because someone who's been around a lot longer than I have is reading my attempts at anime fan fiction and likes it.

Midnightsparrow

Misikoru

Stefini 

Marva

Zelix (Cool stories)

Jadependant

Kyonarai

Pagansedjou

Mi

Whimsy007

Inuyoukai247

Midnight spirits

KazeTani

Aevum

Rayesun

Eartha


	12. Chapter 11

Alright everyone, this chapter is where my story starts to earn its 'R' rating. If you feel uncomfortable about reading scenes that contain **graphic violence** and **sexual assault**, DO NOT READ THIS CHAPTER! You've been warned!

* * *

Chapter 11

Mariko stalked across the village to where the shimmering blue barrier cut it off from the rest of the world. She was instantly drenched. Her shoes absorbed water from the puddles that she stumbled through faster than she had thought they could and her hair was plastered to her face and the back of her neck.

The barrier, now quite obvious in the darkness of the night, glowed an ethereal blue and illuminated the silhouettes of the dozen or so watchmen lining its perimeter, all of them with boards or some other solid object held over their heads in attempts to stay dry. Mariko approached the barrier at the widest gap between the watchmen and cautiously poked a finger at it. Nothing happened.

Carefully, she touched her hand to it and she saw the barrier ripple and stepped forward towards it. Pushing through the barrier was like pushing through a wall of Jell-O - quite an interesting experience. As soon as she stepped outside of it, she turned to look at it and was surprised to see no blue light, let alone the barrier. Tentatively, she reached out and her hand encountered the wall of energy, but she couldn't see it.

Shrugging, she turned away and realized that she probably should have brought her flashlight. It was pitch dark, despite it being barely six. Souten was nowhere to be seen. Warily she ventured out into the dark, looking for the pair of bright red eyes that would tell her where the Thunder Demoness was.

"Souten?" she called after a few minutes of wandering around, "Where are you?" There was no reply, save for the _shhhhhh_ of the heavy rain and Mariko began to feel nervous.

"Souten!" she called loudly.

A clawed hand tapped her shoulder lightly and Mariko screamed and reacted on instinct; flipping open and lashing out with her fan. Someone caught her arm in mid swing and held it still.

"You said you weren't scared of me human," came a woman's cold voice.

Mariko breathed out a sigh of relief as a pair of glowing crimson eyes appeared directly in front of her. The rest of her form, save the contours of her face, was obscured by the night.

"You scared the crap out of me Souten, please don't _do _that," she gasped. The eyes narrowed.

"I will do as I please," replied the demoness pointedly. "Not what a human requests of me."

"Whatever floats your boat," muttered Mariko under her breath, pulling her arm out of Souten's grip and snapping the fan shut.

"Excuse me?" demanded Souten angrily.

"You'd make more friends if you were a bit more considerate," clarified Mariko sarcastically, "Friends are nice, they tend to help you and make sure you don't screw yourself over, like I'm trying to prevent you from doing now, because I know getting on Keitaro's shit list is not a good thing to do. That and I just may want to be your friend, but that's only a side note, since powerful youkai like yourself seem to think they're above friendships and loyalties and whatever."

Souten was silent for a moment, her crimson eyes narrowing.

"What's with the screwy eye look?" demanded Mariko irately.

"You wish to be my friend?" asked Souten quietly.

"Yes!" exploded Mariko, throwing her arms up in the air out of exasperation, "I'd like to be a lot of people's friends, including you, because I know you have that little spark of niceness and decency in there. Considering you didn't kill me outright in the onsen yesterday,"

"No one has told me they wanted to be my friend before," remarked Souten pensively. "I have not had any,"

"What about Shippou? He said you guys were friends."

"Shippou was…. different…"

"Different as in what? Boyfriend different?" asked Mariko, raising an eyebrow and shivering. She was becoming extremely cold from being soaked to the skin.

"Boyfriend? You use a lot of strange words, ningen girl. That has been one of many in the past few minutes."

"I'm not from around here, so expect it. Be thankful I'm not cussing you out in English, which is what I feel like doing right now, but it wouldn't be much fun, because you wouldn't understand what I was yelling about anyways," Mariko shot back, rolling her eyes.

"English?"

"Auuughh… Never mind," replied Mariko with a frustrated sigh. "Are you not so angry and murderous any more? I'd like to go back inside. I'll make sure you don't have to grovel to get that trident thingy of yours back."

Souten's head seemed to tilt as she thought about it, but Mariko couldn't really tell in the darkness.

"Very well," she said, "I will not harm any of the villagers… and my staff is called Raigekijin, and it is not a trident_ thingy_. it was my brother's weapon."

"Raigekijin - got it. Sorry, now lets go back to the village, if I can figure out what direction it's in…" answered Mariko, looking around for any sign of the barrier or the village. Nothing was forthcoming.

"Oh, great…" she muttered. "Souten, where's the village?"

"To your right, about sixty yards" replied Souten succinctly, her wheels suddenly igniting. Mariko yelped and jumped backwards to avoid being set on fire. She glanced up at Souten for a second and noticed the thunder demoness' face turn a sickly shade of grey as her crimson eyes widened with something akin to fear. Before Mariko could even open her mouth to form a question, something slammed into her, knocking her to the ground and ripping open the skin of her forearm, tearing away most of the sleeve of her jacket.

Completely winded, Mariko saw Souten skip backwards as a gigantic paw swiped at the thunder demon and tried to climb to her feet, intending to run towards the village but Souten had other ideas. Darting forward, she seized Mariko by the arm and pulled her into the air just as another gigantic paw batted at the slim ningen girl.

Mariko felt the breeze from the intended, but unsuccessful blow rush under her feet. Souten had pulled her out of the way just in time, but at the same time, dislocated her arm. Mariko screamed as white hot pain shot through her shoulder before it suddenly numbed. Souten didn't bother to apologize as she rose higher into the air and began to flee towards the forest, drawing the giant youkai away from the village.

The demon was larger than anything that Mariko had ever seen before, excluding mountains and modern day buildings. She watched, her blue eyes wide with fear as it bounded after them easily, crushing trees with its every step. Then it stopped and coiled its haunches.

"Souten!" Mariko cried in warning."Look out!"

But it was too late. The massive leopard sprung, lashing out with its claws. It caught the rapidly moving demoness in the back and knocked her out of the air. Blood spiraled from the wounds on her back as Souten let out an unearthly shriek and let go of Mariko's arm as they both tumbled towards the ground. Mariko couldn't muster up a sound as she watched the ground come rushing up to meet her.

She hit a stand of bushes and flattened them, impacting the soft, muddy ground on her side, her lame arm fracturing as it cushioned her landing. To her right, she heard a sickening crunch that sounded like the impact of flesh against wood. Mariko's head spun as the pain finally registered. Agony from her side and left arm caused her vision to blacken and her mind began to float away.

I am going to die… 

She was abruptly brought back to the pain of reality by something ripping at her clothes and a snapping sound registered in her clouded mind as she felt the necklace that held the Shikon jewel torn away. Reacting instinctively, she lashed out with the sword still clutched in a death grip in her right hand and felt it meet flesh. A bellow from above her made her eyes fly open and dimly, through her pain filled haze, she could see the outline of a crouched, human-sized figure with pointed ears; before the hand stuck her arm, knocking the katana away. Numbness reverberated down her arm and she tried to flail at the creature, her fist impacting firm, furry flesh as it moved over her. Cold water and icy wind ate at her bare flesh as she felt the claws shove her legs apart. Fear and panic exploded in her mind as the intentions of the youkai above her finally sunk into her fractured mind.

_No! NO! This can't be happening… please God NO!_

Finding her voice, Mariko began to scream.

A blow to her head sent her mind spiraling away into a blessed darkness where it didn't hurt anymore.

_Keitaro… help… _was the last thing she remembered thinking before the blackness overtook her completely.

* * *

"Would you stop fidgeting Keitaro?" demanded Shippou, throwing one of his chopsticks at the restless hanyou. Keitaro caught the chopstick and tossed it back to Shippou, but didn't reply.

"If you are so worried about Mariko, follow her," commented Miroku calmly.

"She exited the barrier awhile ago. I will open a portal if you wish to find her," offered Youmi, looking up from where she was sorting herbs and plants. Keitaro was still for a moment, before nodding silently and rising to his feet. He slid his katana into his belt and exited the hut.

He bounded towards the barrier, cursing the fact that the rain had already dissolved Mariko's scent. He would have to search for her around the perimeter of the village and he would have to rely on his eyes and ears. He felt blind.

Upon reaching the barrier, a door sized gap appeared and Keitaro stepped through it and watched as it sealed shut behind him and the barrier vanished. It's presence only registering as a faint, colorless blur that almost fooled his hanyou eyes into thinking it wasn't there.

Turning, he began to scout around the edge of the perimeter, straining his eyes as he tried to find Mariko in the deluge, which, thankfully, was beginning to lighten slightly. After circling the village once, his chest began to feel tight with worry. Neither Mariko, nor Souten were anywhere to be found. The rainstorm lightened to a misty fog that hung over the ground, making everything damp and cold. Only the smells of mud and moss reached his nose, and even they were faint.

He distanced himself from the village, scanning the ground for any sort of clue. It took several minutes of searching before he saw the large scrap of dark blue fabric; the same colour as her jacket, stained with blood and half submerged in a puddle. He raced over to the piece of cloth, snatching it up and bringing it too his nose and sniffing it anxiously.

Fear erupted in his heart when the smell of Mariko's blood wafted up his nostrils.

Panic began to override his thoughts as he frantically searched for another clue, a sign of her whereabouts. Then he saw it, a pair of running shoe prints that had been half obliterated by a gash in the soil. A little ways beyond that, he could see a giant paw print, filled with muddy water. Keitaro began to search for more footprints and found a pair of smooth ones, obviously from Souten's boots and a scorch mark that had to have come from her wheels.

In front of the smooth boot prints, there were more running shoe tracks; first, they approached the spot where he stood, before spinning around to face the smooth boot prints and then moving backwards. There, they were swept sideways. Keitaro eyed the ground and felt his heart clench when he was able to discern a barely visible skid mark in the mud that stretched out a good twenty feet.

_Mariko… you were thrown sideways by whatever this monster is…_

Coiling his legs, he lept into the air, looking for other prints and he saw a pair of the giant ones leading towards the forest and a line of trampled bushes leading away from the village. Without a backwards glance, Keitaro was leaping from tree to tree on either side of the beaten trail, that ominously began to shrink until it was reduced to the trail that a large man might blaze through the forest with a machete.

A glimmer of sputtering fire in the darkness caught his eye.

Redirecting himself towards it, he came upon Souten's crumpled form, partially embedded in the wood of a tree trunk, the fire on her wheels slowly fading out of existence. She had hit the tree at a speed that a Bullet Train could never hope to obtain. Hopping down from the tree, he stepped closer to the ominously still thunder demoness and in his heart; he felt a pang of regret.

This was my fault… I left her unarmed… 

Cautiously, he knelt, touched her shoulder, and received a jarring electrical shock. Hopping backwards with a yelp, he stuck his charred fingers in his mouth to sooth them.

Souten shifted and moaned, a hoarse, agonizing sound that reverberated from her throat.

Her left eye fluttered open and Keitaro saw that it was dull and clouded, lacking stubborn glint that it normally possessed as it slid over to look at him.

"No……touch…heal…zap…" came a faint whisper from Souten's lips and suddenly Keitaro understood. The shocks were a natural defense mechanism for when her body was regenerating.

"Souten… do you know Mariko is?" he asked desperately. "I know you were with her… Where is she?"

"Ma…Ma…i…ko…hssssss…."

Keitaro was watching the thunder demoness' face for a clue when the smell hit him, sending his mind reeling.

Blood. Mariko's blood, mixed with the nauseating stench of seed and Violation.

Without another word to the broken demoness, Keitaro launched himself towards the horrifying smell with a howl of fury, his sword aloft and ready to draw blood.

But when he reached the source of the smell, the cry died on his lips and he skidded to a stop, his mind registering what was before him with a startling clarity that made his knees weak and his stomach turn. Horror invaded his body, making his chest and limbs turn to ice as he saw the leopard moving over Mariko's prone form.

Before his mind could even recover from the shock, his protective instincts took over.

"RRRRrrrrrrraaaaaahhhhhh!" he screamed, throwing himself at the youkai, slashing with his sword. The leopard, momentarily confused by the impact as it was tossed sideways, quickly recovered and swiped at Keitaro, its deadly claws narrowly missing Keitaro's face as the inu-hanyou skipped backwards.

Keitaro leaped forward, hacking at the youkai. Yet, he only managed to land one of a dozen or so blows that he made with his katana, his hanyou senses picking up on the enormity of the youkai's youki aura. The fucking bastard was stronger than he was and knew it. The leopard slashed at him again and Keitaro felt claws meet his flesh, the burning poison and he screamed as he threw himself away from them.

Reacting on a dime, Keitaro dug his claws into his wound and flicked them away, red crescents of energy darting away from him

"HIJINKESSOU!" 

The energy had little effect on the demon as it darted forwards towards Keitaro, its eyes gleaming a disturbing scarlet colour. It's claws glinted in the darkness and Keitaro barely managed to avoid being impaled upon them. Flipping backwards, he coiled his leg muscles and launched himself at the leopard, swiping his claws at the demon's face, only to receive a punch in the face that sent him sailing back into a tree with a crash.

"_SAN-KON-TES- GYAHHH!"_

_Crunch. _

Keitaro's vision blurred as he struggled to make out the shadowed black and yellow figure rushing him. His mind caught up with him just in time and he rolled sideway to avoid being turned meat strips as the leopard's claws swept forward, their tips crackling with demonic energy.

Thinking became more and more difficult as the youkai mercilessly took chunks out of him and soon blood ran in rivulets down his arms and legs. He had to be as bloody as Mariko was… The thought of her, broken and bleeding at the hands of this monster pushed his rage into overdrive as he suddenly redoubled his attacks.

He didn't see the blow coming until it hit him. He felt the skin on one of his ears tearing away as he sailed through the air, his thoughts fading into one single maxim as he hit the ground.

_Kill. _

Keitaro felt himself hit the dirt. He could feel himself bleeding and the sluggishness of exhaustion, but he no longer cared.

All thought vanished from his mind as the roaring of his youkai blood took over, a soundless rush in his mind as his instincts rose to the forefront and his conscience was pushed aside. His body evolved to the potency of his anger, his claws lengthening, his eyes bleeding crimson and jagged violet stripes appearing on his cheekbones

"RAHHHHH! SAN_-_KON_-TES_SOU" he screamed, launching himself at the leopard once more. He felt his claws sink into the leopard's pelt and hot, burning blood gushed by as he reveled in the destruction of the leopard's life, enjoying the raw power and carnage at a point beyond his human side's comprehension.

Keitaro landed in a crouch as the leopard's body felt to the ground behind him in two pieces. Instantly, he was looking for new prey, something warm to slash to pieces and _kill. _

Rising from the crouch, he cast about with his youkai senses, looking for the sound and warmth of a beating heart. He found it in the sight of a warm female presence splayed on the ground, her lifeblood pooling around her.

His human mind would have recognized her, would have stopped short at the sight of her, but the youkai didn't see Fujita Mariko. It saw a prone female exuding the maddening combination of heat scent and blood. It remembered the attraction of the human mind to this female. With a feral grin on his face, Keitaro quickly began to approach the female, his youkai mind intent on only one thing, his body unable to heed anything but the immeasurable lust and roaring of the demon blood in his mind.

It was then that the bare remnants of his spiritual abilities sensed a gathering of energy. His youkai, too far gone with lust, kept walking even as the energy gathered and burst suddenly into visibility as a shining, transparent figure with soft grey eyes and long, dark hair appeared directly in front of him, her mouth contorted into a soundless cry as she threw up her hands in an attempt to stop him.

Unable to dodge, and the fiery youkai unable to think of the possibility of stopping, Keitaro crashed through the figure as if she were a wall of freezing water, splashing down onto him as she was broken into wispy pieces that faded almost instantly.

Gasping and heaving, Keitaro fell to his knees next to Mariko as the world came rushing back to him. Everything felt hazy and memories of the all-consuming bloodlust made him nauseous. Disjointed memories of a ghostly figure reaching for him and the feeling that came after having a cold shower made his head spin.

The whirling maelstrom that was his mind slowly faded into a single thought as his eyes finally managed to focus on the battered and dying girl that was lying in front of him.

_Mariko. _

Without thinking, he scooped her up into his arms and began to run, trying not to think of the sin that his youkai had been about to commit.

* * *

Keitaro lost track of time as he ran through the night and the following day. All he knew was that he had to get Mariko to a modern hospital or she was going to die. He needed to get through the well.

He reached the village at ten the following evening, and he nearly collapsed as he reached the well. His exhaustion was threatening to shut him down completely but he knew that he had to keep going. He had stopped once to bind her wounds with fabric from his t-shirt early that day, and when he had finished, he had barely been able to summon the muscle power to start moving again after that. He knew that if he stopped again, he would fall over and not be able to get up.

He couldn't let that happen.

He raced through his father's forest to the large clearing that the Bone Eaters well stood in. With a leap, Keitaro plunged into its depths, holding Mariko's form close to his heart.

* * *

Nurse Rumiko noticed the lull in conversation as the doors to the ER's waiting room hissed open.

Glancing up from her paperwork for the most recent emergency that she had seen – A man had accidentally severed his index finger in a construction accident – she felt her jaw fall open at the sight of the strange boy standing in the doorway, shirtless and bleeding from numerous wounds on his arms and bare torso. The broken and seemingly lifeless body of the girl cradled in his arms however, was what that spurred her into action as the boy stumbled forward.

"Please…" he whispered, his haunted gold eyes pleading with her. "Save her…"

A nearby ambulance crew that had been on standby in the waiting room after arriving with another patient converged on them, moving the girl's body onto a stretcher and whisking her away through a pair of swinging doors to Triage.

Nurse Rumiko seized a clipboard from the ER desk and forcibly relocated the boy to a nearby chair as he made a move to follow the girl into Triage.

"Name?" she asked gently, crouching down so that she was level with the strange boy's face.

"Doesn't matter who I am…She's Fujita Mariko," replied the boy hoarsely, pointing awkwardly. Nurse Rumiko suddenly noticed the ragged, furry white triangles on his head. One of them had a large tear and the white hair was matted with congealed blood.

Are those ears? 

"Birth defect…" mumbled the boy, as if he sensed her gaze, "Ignore them." Nurse Rumiko shook her head and returned to her questioning.

"What happened?"

The boy was silent for a full minute, his face twisting and grimacing as he obviously struggled to find words.

"We were camping…with a few friends… and I got in an argument with one of them…and she left the campsite… Mariko went to look for her and try to calm her down… but they were attacked… Some madman with a knife. I went looking for them when they didn't come back and I got there in time to pull the fucking bastard off Mariko - He was stronger than me… bigger… but I m-m-managed t-to… s-stop him…" The boy's voice shook as he stared determinedly at his knees. Rumiko saw that his hands were trembling violently.

"Are you telling me that your friend was raped?"

The trembling increased and the boy nodded.

"S-she was unconscious when I g-got there…" he mumbled, "I didn't even hear her scream… b-but when I saw w-what had – w-what was happening to her… _I l-lost it_…" his voice faded into a horrified whisper and he seemed unable to speak, yet his forlorn and guilt-ridden expression told Rumiko that something deeper was going on here.

"Is she a good friend of yours?" she asked gently.

"I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I lost her…" he whispered in reply, glancing up at her for a split second.

Nurse Rumiko nodded and stood up straight, before spinning on her heel and strode towards the large double doors that led to Triage.

* * *

Keitaro watched the nurse go, his eyes dull.

He knew better than to follow – he would just get in the way.

Vaguely, he remembered a story that Mama-baachan had told him about his father refusing to leave his mother's side when she had been admitted to hospital before his birth and in truth, he understood his father's behavior with a clarity that his exhausted mind marveled.

The raw feelings of guilt and worry that had been eating away at him began to fade as his eyes finally began to droop shut and he succumbed to the sleep that his tired body was demanding, the sight of the spirit girl haunting his dreams.

* * *

Authors note: Before you all yell at me, just remember that everything happens for a reason, Okay?

Special thanks to Sam for her nitpickiness when it came to editing and kudos to Alec for beta-ing as always… even though I never actually managed to receive the version of this chapter that you edited!

And to my reviewers!

Midnight spirits

Tim Creevey

Eartha

Aevum (Thanks again Sam!)

Kyonarai

Inujade

Marva

Stefini

Tom

Midnight sparrow


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

"Keitaro…?"

Keitaro felt himself being shaken awake as two familiar and comforting smells filtered through the sickening aromas of disinfectant, disease and blood that punctuated the hospital. His eyes fluttered open and he could see a wizened, salt and pepper haired woman crouched in front of him, a hand lightly resting on his knee.

"Baa-chan?" he whispered, blinking tiredly, surprise making his back stiffen and his bloody ears twitch.

"Yes," replied Mama Higurashi, patting her grandson's knee reassuringly. Behind her, Souta was bending down, watching his face.

"Hey Inu-otouto, you like you've been through hell and back…" said Souta quietly, taking a seat in the empty chair beside Keitaro's.

"Yah…" mumbled Keitaro, "How did you…?"

"This was sticking out of your pocket - the nurse looked up your name and phoned us," replied Mama-baachan, holding up a tattered and blood-stained piece of paper. Keitaro squinted at it and realized that it was a piece of homework. Across the top, _Higurashi Keitaro _was written in his own, slightly messy and semi-cursive kanji script.

"How long have I been sleeping?" he asked, glancing around the ER's waiting room. Through the sliding doors, he could see blue skies and fluffy clouds dotting the horizon above the slightly brownish haze of smog that hung over the city.

"A good ten hours… one of the nurses was bandaging your arms when we got here and you didn't even stir, which shocked me - What happened over there Keitaro? No man with a knife could have gotten you this scratched up - What type of youkai was it?" Mama-baachan watched him, her dark eyes searching and concerned. She reached up to brush a lock of hair out of his eyes.

"Leopard…" replied Keitaro dully, slumping and idly scratching his bandaged arm.

"It was rampaging villages… Theory was that it had jewel shard - I don't know - Couldn't really tell…" He suddenly straightened, his ears perked up and his eyes lost their dead quality and were suddenly bright and glittering. "Where's Mariko? Tell me she's still alive,"

"She just came out of surgery – her parents are with her in the ICU," replied Mama wearily. "She had major internal hemorrhaging and they tried to mend all the tendons and nerves in herright leg. They also had to put pins in her arm. The bone was completely pulverized and that's not even touching upon the mental trauma she's endured. She won't be the same person if she wakes up Keitaro… If she ever does – The doctors are not optimistic about her prognosis."

Pain punched Keitaro in the gut, a feeling of regret and guilt so potent that it ate at his soul as he struggled to keep from breaking down completely. It wrapped itself around his heart and contracted like a python making its kill. He was numb. He couldn't speak as his head spun with the disjointed memories of the scent of blood and the murderous instincts that lay dormant just beneath the surface of his mind.

_My fault…my fault…it was all my fault…_

A low whine escaped his body without him even noticing.

The sound was pure inu-youkai; a cry of utter misery.

* * *

"MARIKO! SOUUUUTEN! KEITAAARO!" 

Shippou bellowed their names as he scoured the woods around the village, looking for signs of his three companions. The smell of blood was thick in his nostrils and he felt sick to his stomach. Some distance away, he could hear Miroku searching also, using his staff to wrestle aside uncooperative shrubs and bushes as he frantically combed the forest floor. Shippou fought the rising bile in his throat as he struggled to push his fears to the back of his mind.

Pushing through the undergrowth and calling the names of his friends did little to alleviate the sense of helplessness that had taken hold of his body. Every time that he shoved aside a new shrub or fern, he expected to see one of their mutilated bodies cast on the ground in front of him.

It wasn't until he nearly tripped over her, that he noticed Souten crumpled on the ground.

An immense wave of relief swept over him as he called for Miroku. Dropping to his knees next to the battered young woman, he looked her over for major injuries. No obvious wounds were present, save for a set of gashes on her back that had yet to start scabbing over and healing. He knew better than too touch her in order to check for internal injuries, having received far too many zaps in previous years. Cautiously, He picked up a stone and gently nudged Souten with it.

No response.

Shippou nudged her harder and felt a smile stretch out his face when she stirred, her scarlet eyes flicking open and her small, thin body stretching out involuntarily.

"Mmmmmph-'ippo?" He heard her mumble as she slowly turned to look at him.

"It's me Sparky," he replied, surprised at how easily her old nickname rolled off his tongue. Instead of trying to take a chunk out of him like she usually did at the mention of that name, he saw the corners of her mouth twitch slightly, as if she was almost smiling.

"Five years…" she whispered, her eyes fluttering shut for a moment as she reached up an arm to rub them.

"Eh?"

"Five years… since you last…called me that…"

Shippou mentally counted back to when he had left her standing at the edge of the cliff above her long unoccupied home. He had been disgusted by her pride and blind self-assurance and blaming him for Koryuu's death had been the last straw. The small dragon youkai had been stalwartly guarding her back while she grappled with three angry fire demons that had ambushed them after they had inadvertently strayed into their territory.

He had been over ten metres away, dealing with four of them and trying to put out the blaze that one of them had ignited on his tail when Koryuu had been struck out of the air and engulfed by a fireball that had gotten by Souten's spinning Raigekijin. Shippou still didn't know why she hadn't responded or even acknowledged her faithful servants pleas for help when the said servant lay dying a mere metre away from her. She could have pulled away from the fight and fled with him, but Souten cared more about her honour than the life of a dear friend it seemed.

He had grieved for the red dragon more than Souten. When he had finally been able to function without remembering everything that reminded him of the cheerful little fellow, he had left her behind. He had vowed that he was never going to speak her name again, let alone the nickname that he had given her on a surprisingly dry summer night eight years previously when she had been reduced to receiving a painful zap from anything she touched.

"Five years indeed," he replied, shaking his head slightly.

Light footsteps behind him alerted him to Miroku's approach and seconds later, he turned to see the monk batting a tree branch out of his way with smooth sweep of his staff. His mouth was a grim slash on his face and his violet eyes were brooding.

Miroku knelt down and made to touch the thunder demoness' shoulder and turn her onto her stomach but Shippou stilled his hand with a rapid movement.

"She'll zap you if you touch her. It's a defense mechanism."

Miroku frowned and instead prodded Souten with his staff, pulling her away from the tree base. He winced when she suddenly became unstuck and rolled over twice, gasping and hissing from the pain.

"Stupid bouzu…" muttered Souten raspily, her eyes squeezed shut from the stabbing pains in her back.

"Gomen nasai" murmured Miroku as he set about surveying the demoness' injuries. After looking them over, he brought the hem of his robe to his mouth to tear it into strips to make a bandage.

"Don't bother," muttered Shippou, rising to his feet. "She'll be on her feet by tommorow, we need to find Keitaro and Mariko,"

Miroku dropped the hem of his robes and reached into his sleeve, taking something from a pocket within and holding out his hand. In his palm, the mostly completed Shikon jewel glittered in the midmorning sunlight. "I found this in a clearing not far from here – there was a leopard youkai corpse. It will not be bothering the villagers any longer, but that's not what worries me."

Shippou stared at the jewel in Miroku's hand as he struggled to keep his breakfast down.

"What do you think happened to Mariko and Keitaro?" he choked out, his green eyes wide with worry and fear.

"I can not say for certain, but I have my suspicions… I also found these…" From his robes, he produced Keitaro's katana, which was bent and a large scrap of the heavy cloth that Mariko and Keitaro's trousers were made of. It was bloody and reeked of the leopard's seed. Shippou recoiled in horror, recognizing the smell immediately.

"Bastard…" he breathed, his eyes suddenly becoming clouded with rage, "He will burn in _hell!"_

"We can only hope that Keitaro took Mariko back to their time," replied the monk solemnly, "We will wait for Souten to recuperate, then return to our village and hope for Mariko's recovery… Women do not heal easily from such a crime, unless they do not remember it, and even then, it is difficult. I have seen and heard of such things before."

* * *

Keitaro sat limply outside the entrance to the ICU on one of the uncomfortable vinyl chairs that lined the waiting room's walls, waiting for Mariko's parents to come out. Most of his cuts begun to heal over, albeit slower than they usually did. Only a few of the larger gashes on his torso and his tattered ear had not started healing yet. Mama sat with him; her hand resting comfortingly on his arm. Souta sat nearby, his dark eyes darting around the anxiously as he wrung his hands. Concern clouded his normally bright eyes and he kept shooting Keitaro looks of encouragement. 

Keitaro supposed he should be grateful for his uncle's support, but he couldn't bring himself to move or even acknowledge anything outside his numb and crying mind.

His gold eyes were trained on the large handle of the door, waiting for it to turn. It had done so three times already, admitting or announcing the departure of various visitors to those in the ward. Had Keitaro been in his normal state of mind, he'd have wondered who they were visiting and why, but now he couldn't bring himself to care. All that mattered to him right now was Mariko.

He hadn't seen either of Mariko's parents or even Akihiro since Mama-baachan had relocated him upstairs and he wasn't sure what he could say to either of them. How could he tell them that it was his fault- _his fault_- that Mariko had gotten hurt?

The sound of the doorknob turning broke through his mental haze and he started as the scents of Kappei and Anna-Marie Fujita reached his nose. He rose to his feet, his ears flattened and his eyes downcast, a picture of instinctive submission.

"YOU!"

Kappei Fujita's stern face contorted as his eyes registered Keitaro's presence and before Keitaro could even comprehend what was going on, Kappei slammed him against the wall, a hand on his throat.

"What happened to my daughter _boy!" _he hissed, his jet black eyes glittering malevolently, his veined and spidery hand tightening around Keitaro's neck. Surpressing the urge to throw Kappei across the room, Keitaro cleared his throat with effort. He tried to speak, but realized that no sound was coming from his mouth. Kappei's grip had cut off his air supply.

"TELL ME YOU LITTLE BASTARD! WHAT HAPPENED TO MY DAUGHTER!" bellowed Kappei, his face flushing a crimson red, pulling Keitaro away from the wall for a millisecond and slamming him violently back into it. His mouth spewed epithets, curses and harsh questions.

"Kappei!" gasped Mariko's mother as a low rumbling noise echoed through Keitaro's body. He lifted his golden gaze so that it met the man's eyes straight on and the intensity of it stilled Kappei's black words. Keitaro took advantage of Kappei's momentary surprise and wrapped a clawed hand around the older man's arm, pulling his hand away from his neck with little effort and shoved him away violently. Kappei stumbled backwards into his wife, who caught and steadied him.

"First, don't touch me," Keitaro ground out, a low rumbling noise reverberating from his chest, "Second - second…" his voice fled him, the strength that he had felt moments ago had vanished as quickly as it had arrived. He fought the desire to curl up in a ball and let himself die.

He took a deep breath and the rumbling growl abated as he collapsed back into the chair he had been sitting in.

"It was my fault…" he mumbled brokenly, staring at the floor, "I… let her go…"

"Of course it was your fault you little piece of crap!" barked Kappei, making for Keitaro's throat once more, but encountered a wall in the form of Mama Higurashi.

"You will stop your abuse of my grandson this_ instant!" _she said firmly, her hands on her hips as she stood between Keitaro and Kappei, daring him to reply.

"Move aside!" demanded Kappei angrily as his face turned an ugly purplish colour, "He's the reason that my only daughter is floating in the realm between life and death! How could you know how that feels woman! He deserves the same!_"_

"Don't you _DARE_ insinuate that I do not know what is like to lose a child!" shouted Mama, her face reddening. Her fist clenched convulsively and Keitaro saw a small rivulet of blood run down her hand as one of her nails pierced her skin.

"You have no idea," hissed Kappei darkly, cracking his knuckles.

"Why you-!" Mama started at the younger man, fists ready but Souta caught her arms and struggled to hold her still. The scent of her tears slapped Keitaro's nose and he sunk lower in his chair, guilt gnawing at him.

"My mother knows what you speak of better than anyone," said Souta coldly, "My sister and brother-in-law died sixteen years ago – they were killed defending their village in the world beyond the well. My family knows the dangers of the feudal era better than any other in this day and age; So shut your fucking mouth."

"Feudal era? What is that bullshit? You talking to me like you can time travel!" scoffed Kappei.

There was a pregnant pause, before Keitaro spoke.

"I can… and so can Mariko," he said quietly, "There is a well in our shrine that dips directly into a time steam. Mariko and I can go back and forth between the present and the Sengoku Jidai. My parents were able to also. My father was born over 700 years ago and he was 226 years old when he was killed. Mom was twenty-three."

"but…but… that isn't _possible!" _sputtered Kappei, "Time travel – being two _hundred_ and twenty six! It's preposterous!" He turned to his wife, his arms spread in disbelief as if he was asking for her support. Anna-Marie said nothing, her blue eyes pointedly studying the white linoleum floor tiles

"It's hard to wrap your head around since it's now obvious that you weren't told about the fact that we can time travel _and _that I'm a hanyou…" replied Keitaro, glancing up. His face was expressionless and his eyes were sharp as he watched Mariko's mother. Anna-Marie's shoulders slumped slightly.

"Hanyou-? That's crap boy. Demons don't exist anywhere except in legends."

"They do exist," replied Keitaro darkly, his claws shredding one of the poofy armrests of the chairs. "There's more than you'd imagine, especially in the Sengoku Jidai." Both Souta and Mama nodded in agreement.

"You're delusional boy! Your entire god damned family is completely nuts! I don't know why I let my daughter associate with the likes of you. I expected more from a _shrine _family!" spat Kappei, his face flushing darker.

Suddenly, Kappei found himself slammed against the wall opposite and a strong hand lifted him off the ground by his shirt collar.

"Shut your fat mouth before I rip your tongue out," growled Keitaro, his lip curled back into a wicked snarl. Kappei's voice opened and closed a few times before he realized that he was unable to speak. He gave up on a verbal means of assent and nodded vigorously. Keitaro let the man drop to the ground.

"Blame me all you want for what happened to Mariko," he continued, his voice slightly raspy. "It was my fault. I accept the blame. Now leave my family alone. They had nothing to do with this."

With that, he turned away and strode down the hall towards the large, heavy door that was the entrance to the ICU. It swung open to admit him and clicked shut behind him.

"He can't go in there!" blustered Kappei, but a hand on his arm stilled his anger.

"Yes, he can," Said Anna-Marie quietly. "He deserves to, more than any of us."

* * *

Days turned into weeks and still Mariko remained in the shadows of death. Her physical injuries were hanging in limbo as she lay still upon the hospital bed. The hospital staff was baffled, she was breathing on her own and her heartbeat was weak, but mostly steady, but her injuries refused to heal, refused to stop bleeding. Only her fractured left arm made any motions of knitting itself together in other to heal. The damaged tendons and nerves in her right leg had been given up for loss by the surgeons and the optimistic prognosis was that she'd be paralyzed from just above her knee, if she was lucky. 

Keitaro surmised that the leopard youkai must have had a poison in his claws, for his own injuries to took longer to heal than normal. His tattered ear had taken nearly a week to heal, something that had never happened to Keitaro before.

Keitaro remained resolutely next to her, through out the days and nights. The hospital staff had given up trying to make him leave after he had fractured the arm of the security guard who forcibly tried to remove him. Mama-baachan had also stopped trying to make him go back to school, and instead had assignments collected and brought to him.

Keitaro wasn't sure how many days had passed since he had stumbled into the emergency room with Mariko in his arms, but after what felt like months, he caught two familiar scents in the air. A whiff of fur and magic and a hint of static electricity. Shippou and Souten.

He barely managed to stand up when Shippou peeked through the curtains surrounding the bed. He was dressed in jeans and a white T-shirt that read "I'm out of bed and dressed… What more do you want?" in English.

"Hey brother," he remarked benevolently, his green eyes concerned, "You look like shit."

"Brother… Since when do _you _call me that?" muttered Keitaro, a scowl on his face. He could barely tolerate the human male doctor's and nurses coming anywhere near Mariko. Any youkai near her was pushing it.

"Since forever… You're my little dog brother. It's what I called you when Kagome and Inuyasha were still alive," replied Shippou with a shrug, "Sure, the younger me that you know right now might not call you that, but we're all assholes when we're teenagers, ne? Be happy to know that I grew out of it."

"Keh!" snorted Keitaro, flopping back down onto the chair just as Souten appeared behind Shippou. Keitaro took in her appearance with raised eyebrows. Her black hair was drawn into a severe knot at the base of her neck and designer sunglasses hand been pushed up to the top of her head. Apink and green geometricprint scarf was artistically tied around her neck and she wore awhite pantssuit andgreen stilettos. What unnerved Keitaro to the point of twitching was how _friendly_ she looked. The adjective _Friendly _combined with the noun _Souten _made Keitaro's head spin in confusion.

She had a small, close-lipped smile and her scarlet eyes were earnest as she raised a hand slightly in greeting.

"Hey… How's Mariko doing?" she asked, her face darkening as her gaze took in Mariko's prone form on the hospital bed, surrounded by beeping monitors and machines.

"Not good," Answered Keitaro, his ears drooping as he reached out to tuck some of Mariko's thin, dark hair behind her ear.

As he opened his mouth to list her injuries, a flash of Mariko's bloodied body appeared in his mind and he was suddenly sent spinning as the memories of nauseating smells of that night ravaged his mind. The memories of the cloying, repulsive stench of the leopard's seed and the heavy, upsetting scent of Mariko's blood assaulted him and sent him to his knees.

He buried his nose in the thin, soap-smelling blanket that covered Mariko, trying to rid himself of the overpowering echoes that resonated through his mind. Forgetting that there were others present, he didn't fight the tears that welled up in his eyes and overflowed down his cheeks. He didn't notice Souten leaving and when he surfaced from the hole of misery that he had dug himself into, he realized that Shippou was still standing at the foot of Mariko's hospital bed, watching him with an unreadable expression on his face.

Jumping to his feet, Keitaro was suddenly overtaken by the desire to throw Shippou across the ward, but before he could even move towards him, the kitsune said something that stopped him cold.

"She's going to die Keitaro."

Keitaro felt everything in his body come to a screeching halt. His heart skipped about a half dozen beats it as someone drove a knife into it and twisted it around. His throat closed and he felt as though his stomach had dropped to his feet as all the blood left his brain.

"How - do you…?" he managed to choke out, his hand darting out to steady himself on Mariko's hospital bed.

"You told me." replied Shippou grimly, wringing his hands. His tail flicked back and forth nervously, the concealment spell on it shimmering with the motion. Keitaro stared at him, speechless, before his golden eyes became dark with pain as he turned to look at Mariko's still form on the hospital bed. He gazed at her for an indeterminable amount of time, before he glanced over his shoulder at Shippou, his face hard.

"Tell me how to save her – If I told you that she died, I must have told you _how._"

Shippou watched the determination on his brother's face melt away into desperation as the minutes ticked by and swallowed the lump in his throat. Summoning up his resolve, he forced out the four words that would set the wheel in motion.

"I can't tell you."

"WHY THE HELL NOT?" exploded Keitaro angrily, bounding across the room and seizing Shippou by the neck and lifting him off the ground. Nurses from the nurses desk shrieked and jumped to their feet. One ran to slap the red button to summon security and the other two pleaded for Keitaro to set Shippou down.

"You… wouldn't… understand…" wheezed Shippou as Keitaro's hands slowly crushed his windpipe. The larger of the two nurses reached for Keitaro's arm, with the intention of prying it away. Keitaro elbowed her and sent her sprawling into the smaller nurse.

"I don't _CARE_! Tell me _now!_" bellowed Keitaro, squeezing harder. Shippou felt his heart clench when he saw the red beginning to bleed into Keitaro's eyes. He mentally cursed the potency of inu-youkai tempers.

"Fine…" he gasped, "Let me go – and I'll tell you how to save her."

Keitaro grip loosened suddenly and Shippou unceremoniously dropped to the floor. He sat there panting for a moment or two, trying to replace the oxygen that had been used up by his lungs.

"I can save her?" demanded Keitaro suspiciously, crossing his arms and glowering at Shippou, his eyes narrowed. The nurses retreated to the safety of the desk as four burly security guards strode in. Both Keitaro and Shippou ignored them.

Shippou nodded wordlessly, his reddish bangs flopping in his face heavily as they were soaked with sweat.

"How?"

A low sound came from Shippou, to low for even Keitaro's inu ears to pick up. Training them forward, Keitaro glared at the kitsune.

"I didn't hear that,"

"Mark her…"

* * *

Author's note: I've been diagnosed with the beginnings of Carpal tunnel syndrome (inflammation of a tendon in my wrists…my hands get all numb and sore) from typing without proper wrist support and now I have to wear these annoying wrist braces 24/7 for probably the rest of my life….Which is kinda sad, because I'm only 15 and I still have like 70 years left in me. Since I can't type for more than 20 minutes at a stretch without taking a long break, chapter updates will be even more sporadic. I'm sorry guys, but it gets real painful when I type for long stretches. (The only reason I'm not permanently sticking my computer in the closet for the next five months is that I'd go insane from pent up creativity streaks).

Janna Lynn

To my reviewers;

**Wolf lover**

**Sari-15**

**Roku kyu**

**Sueric **lol, I just about squealed with excitement when I saw your review. I've always admired your work!

**Broken Visage**

**Kyonarai**

**Tim creevey** I can't say anything about there being lemons in this story. If there are any, they won't show up for awhile (LMW will be a +35 chapter story). Lemons aren't exactly something I'm very comfortable with writing, though I have tried and failed. Maybe sometime in the future one will turn up, but no promises.

**Bakabokken **I do have a grand master plot worked out, lol. It won't rear it's head for another few chapters though. As for Mariko's character, I have a hard time pinning her to – which is odd, since I'm the one writing her- When I originally thought her up, I decided right away that I would avoid giving her powers of any sort. No miko/youkai/heavenly being blood whatsoever and she'd be a normal person with slightly above average intelligence who didn't scare easily and had the accepting nature that comes from living in the 21st century. Beyond that, even I get a little shifty about details. She writes herself it seems.

**Midnight Spirits**

**Raye sun**


	14. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

Keitaro stood at the window, his forehead pressed against the cool glass. Outside, rain fell in the darkness, the soothing noise calming his scattered mind. Below the window, he could see the headlights of cars moving up and down the street and the hunched figures of people walking along the sidewalks, umbrellas up and hoods drawn forward, making them little more than rapidly moving shadows in the glares of the car's lights.

The ICU ward was quiet and dim, only the beeping of monitors and the hum of various machines could be heard, along with the breathing of the patients that could breathe for themselves. Behind him, Mariko lay upon her bed, her chest rising and falling almost imperceptibly. Her heartbeat had just gradually begun to slow and Keitaro knew that time was waning for her. He felt helpless.

Shippou's words echoed in his mind.

"_Mark her…mark her… mark her…"_

Keitaro turned away from the window and slumped back against it, kneading his eyes with his hands. His mind had turned the thought inside out and upside down. He knew little of youkai blood exchanges, but he was positive that the regenerative abilities of the youkai were tied to their blood. He knew the human mates of youkai and hanyou's healed faster due to the regular blood injections that they received from their mates. His mother had shown evidence of this on numerous occasions, according to Mama-baachan, but the effects had vanished as soon as Inuyasha had been killed.

He turned the concept over and over in his mind, searching for alternatives, yet, deep with in his heart, he knew the only two choices he had were either to bind her to him or let her die. He knew could never bear loosing her, but the thought of making the choice for her made bile rise in his throat.

Slowly, he crossed the small hospital room and sank down in the chair next to Mariko's bed. Gently he traced the edgings of the bandages on the arm that was nearest too him. It seemed sometimes as though she was held together by stitches, then completely wrapped in gauze and medical tape.

_How many of these wounds will become scars Mariko? You were flawless before and now you're like this… lying as though you are dead, barely clinging to life and your body forever marred…_

Resting his head on the guard rail of Mariko's bed, he felt his mind wander away, the slow, meditative churning of his thoughts lulling him into a light and restless sleep.

* * *

Keitaro came awake with the odd feeling that someone was watching him. He could hear one of the night nurses checking the vitals of someone beyond the curtained wall to his right. Sitting up, he nearly fell off his chair from surprise.

Standing across the bed from her was a girl about his age, an ethereal glow gently illuminating her white kimono. Her long dark hair fell across her shoulders in gentle waves. His first thought was that she was Christian angel or a spirit. He shifted closer to the bed and she turned to face him, as though sensing his movement.

Her grey eyes were as familiar as his own, yet he could not place where he had seen them before. They looked at him, their sadness twisting his heart, but in an odd way, he knew she was hurting for him. She was reflecting his pain.

She smelled of nothing, save a tingle in his nose that usually accompanied working with electricity in science class. None of the musks that hung around humans and youkai seemed to emanate from her. Through her, Keitaro could see the drab grey curtains that formed the boundaries of Mariko's cubicle.

It was then that he noticed that a particular sound had faded. One that his mind had keyed into long ago and kept him going straight. It had kept a steady beat in the back of his mind, like a metronome keeping time for a song that he thought would last forever.

Mariko's heart had stopped.

"NO!" he bellowed, shooting to his feet just as the heart rate monitor began to scream it warnings.

The girl looked at him, her eyes penetrating. As though she knew that they could both see Mariko's colourful aura slowly disappearing.

_You know what you have to do… _They seemed to say. She looked back at Mariko and made a gentle gesture over her forehead, then vanished just as the night nurse skidded into the cubicle.

Ignoring Keitaro completely, the pudgy little nurse - who's name tag identified her as Hiroko – took one glance at the monitors next to Mariko's bed, swore, and sprinted out of the cubicle. She returned less than thirty seconds later with a small, laptop sized object that she threw down on the bed.

Working at a feverish pace, the woman ripped open the front of Mariko's gown, quickly placed two pads on her chest and stomach and stabbed a button.

The little machine hummed to life and Keitaro realized that it was a defibulator.

"Come on!" urged the nurse agitatedly, glaring at the machine as the heart rate monitors continued to beep shrilly.

In a horribly automated voice, the defibulator announced that Mariko's rapidly deteriorating condition was not the result of cardiac arrest. Keitaro felt the air rush out of his lungs as though he had been run over by a Mack truck.

The nurse was swearing and prepping to do CPR when Keitaro's voice cut through her single-minded drive to revive the still girl.

"Get me a needle."

The nurse looked up from her struggling, her expression telling him that she never fully absorbed the fact that he was there.

"W-w-what?" she stammered.

"Get me a syringe," repeated Keitaro firmly, leaning over the bed and fixing the woman with a glare that did nothing to hide the gut wrenching fear that twisted his insides into knots. "I know how I can save her."

Nurse Hiroko's mouth fell open.

"How…?"

"Doesn't matter," snarled Keitaro angrily, baring his fangs as he caught sight of his watch. Nearly three minutes had passed since Mariko's heart had stopped. "Just get a fucking needle and get it _NOW!"_

The pudgy nurse yelped and stumbled from the room, returning seconds later with a packaged syringe in hand. Keitaro snatched it from her, ripped off the sterilized bag, depressed the plunger and drove the needle into his arm in one smooth motion. He had it half filled with his own dark red blood when the nurse's eyes finally registered what she was seeing.

"What the hell are you doing!" She demanded, starting towards him as though she intended to pull the syringe away.

"Shut up and get ready to do chest compressions!" growled Keitaro, his ears flat against his skull as he pulled the needle out of his arm and began to move towards Mariko's side.

"You mean you're- I can't allow you to do that!" cried the nurse.

"I'm doing it and if I'm right, it'll save her, _Now shut the fuck up and do what I tell you do to!" _he bellowed as he picked a spot near the top of Mariko's right arm and plunged the needle deep into a vein.

"Do chest compressions," he ordered and the nurse meekly obeyed; land marking and placing the heel of her hand on Mariko's chest, doing sharp, short, even compressions as Keitaro slowly emptied the contents of the syringe into Mariko's bloodstream.

The syringe was nearly empty before he felt any sort of reaction to the transfer. A pulse from Mariko's body nearly blew him off his feet and his world suddenly began to spin as his youki began to bleed away from him, fading into thin air.

"Shit!" he cried.

"What's happening?" cried the nurse, curiously unaffected by the power exchange and still doing to the compressions in a way that told him that she was afraid to stop.

Keitaro didn't answer as he finished depositing the last of the syringe's contents into Mariko's bloodstream. His loss of equilibrium increased as his youki continued to drain away into nothing and a wave of nausea swept over him. Barely able to stay upright, Keitaro struggled to understand why it wasn't working.

It took another few crucial seconds for his mind to put it all together and when he did, he let out a long string of curses as he pulled the needle out and began to search for a new spot to insert it into Mariko's arm.

_Baka! It's a blood exchange! If you don't complete the circle of transfer, your youki and her life force will just drain away into nothing! _He raged at himself as he slid the needle into an artery.

Ignoring the nurse's cry of "Hey! She needs that blood!"; Keitaro withdrew some of Mariko's blood and thrust the needle into one of his own veins, quickly depressing the plunger, his rapidly beating heart easily handling the influx of extra blood into his bloodstream.

The reaction was immediate.

With a burst of light and a deafening pulse, his youki stopped fading away into nothing and instead was drawn towards Mariko's body. The nurse jumped away from her, swearing as Keitaro leaned close and took Mariko's hand, praying that his idea…his _mark_… worked. The shimmering veil of his youki spread up her arm, sinking into her chest and fading from sight. Other branches divided into sections, seeking out her other injuries and surrounding them.

Keitaro closed his eyes, praying to all 108 Kami's as he studied Mariko's form with his mind's eye. For a few moments, nothing happened, but then a glimmer of yellow appeared within the dark, horrible violet colour of Mariko's heart. As Keitaro watched, the yellow shimmered into a fiery orange to a brilliant red that blossomed outwards from her heart as Mariko's body leaped off the bed as her heart was suddenly shocked back into beating.

In an instant, Keitaro felt his own heart spasm and he was suddenly crippled by a pain that was all consuming and beyond description. For a split second, he could see Mariko teetering on the edge of jagged cliff, off balance and ready to fall. Linking them was the barest remains of a golden string that looked as though it was about to fray. Beyond the edge, he could see the darkness of Death waiting to catch Mariko in its claws and take her to the dimly glowing entrance to the afterlife in the distance. He was too far away to pull her back.

"MARIKO!" he screamed, tugging on the on the string as it began to fray.

She turned to look at him, her blue eyes widening in fear as she finally overbalanced and began to tumble into the abyss.

He saw her lips form his name as he lunged towards her, only to find her forced back into his reach by a pair of strong arms. As he pulled her over the edge of the cliff, he could see the hint of red and silver disappearing into the swirling miasma that hung in the air.

_Not her time…Not her time…Not her time…Not her time… _

Voices whispered around them as they both collapsed back into Reality.

* * *

Keitaro flicked back into consciousness almost immediately after hitting the ground in that other world. The alarm had stopped and now the monitor beeped softly with every reassuring thump of Mariko's heart. She lay still, still lost in the world between life and death, but Keitaro knew she was coming back to him, however slowly, she was coming back.

_Thank god…Oh thank god… _

He had slumped away from her when he blacked out, but he still held her hand firmly in his grasp. Leaning forward, he drew her coverlet up over her exposed chest and bandages and kissed her lightly on the forehead.

It was then that he noticed that the nurse was gazing at him in slack-jawed astonishment.

"You… her… she…dead…how?" stammered the woman.

"It's better if you don't understand it," replied Keitaro, his gaze solemn. "You can't tell anyone about what you saw."

The nurse nodded vigorously and began checking Mariko's vitals, as though trying to reassure herself that Mariko was actually alive.

"Could you leave?" asked Keitaro quietly when she finished. The nurse vanished, her footsteps telling him that she was walking towards the main desk. He watched Mariko's chest rise and fall with each breath she took. His thoughts began to darken as the nibbling uncertainties of doubt began to gnaw at his mind.

_What have I done?_

Letting go of Mariko's hand, Keitaro pulled his chair over and collapsed into it, burying his face in his hands as the full weight of his actions fell heavily onto his shoulders. He had made his choice.

He knew he could live with what he had done, but at the same time his mind screamed at him.

_**You marked her without her consent! **_

_It was to save her… To save her… I could break the link… I could break it…_ repeated one part of his mind endlessly, before his common sense kicked in. _Oh who the hell am I trying to kid… I can't break the fucking link unless I kill myself. _

He flinched as his mind instantly brought forth the memories of reading about the Seppuku, the ritual suicide practiced by the samurai when their honour had been stripped from them. The thought of turning his sword on himself repulsed him.

_I'm no better than that fucking leopard and twice as cowardly! _He seethed, torn between his somewhat neglected sense of honour and his horror at the thought of something as hideous as killing himself.

He could barely bring himself too look at Mariko now as the shame turned his insides to lead and weighed down his very soul.

_What have I done…?_

The unthinkable…

_It was to save her…_

I didn't save her before.

_I couldn't… I failed her… _

I lost control.

_I couldn't let her die…_

I bound her too me forever.

_I couldn't let her die…_

I'm no better than that fucking leopard. I've forced myself on her in way that is almost as despicable as what he did.

_I had to save her… _

I wanted to have her by my side.

_I couldn't let her die! It was all my fault! My fault that she was hurt… My fault that she is suffering. _

How could I do this to her?

_I couldn't let her die… I would never be able to live myself. _

Better to let her die than live a life where her choices have been made for her.

_I can't live without her…_

I'm a selfish bastard.

_I'm a worthless baka… _

I couldn't let her die…

_Why did you do it Keitaro? _

Keitaro jerked out his trance. A soft voice had spoken, hardly a voice at all. He wasn't even sure if he had heard it. It was so faint and childlike. Familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.

_Why? _The voice asked once more. It was soft, a whisper that he could barely hear. He wasn't even sure if it was actually audible to his ears and not just his mind. He recognized it. It had been the voice that had questioned his decisions all his life. That appeared and disappeared at random, all the while forced him to re-examine his choices, and his reckless and fool-hardy impulses. It was why he was so level headed – most of the time.

_Why Keitaro? Why did you do it?_

Keitaro was silent, his inner mind struggling with the answer. To really understand what he had done.

_I did it because I couldn't stand the thought of her not being by my side. I want to protect her. I want to prove that I will not fail her again…_

Keitaro raised his head from his hands and turned his eyes to Mariko's still form. She looked peaceful in the dim light of the ICU's night lighting. He rose to his feet and stepped closer to her bed. He gently touched her cheek and smiled slightly when he felt it's warm softness under his sword roughened hands. He traced a thin, rippling line that was to become a scar on her left cheek.

_I'm sorry Mariko… _

He let his gaze wander down her still form. Her injuries were still present, but they no longer had the faint, tainted smell of the leopard youkai's poison. She had a chance at healing, in both her body and her soul.

_You will protect her… You will always protect her. _The child-voice was still there, in the back of his mind. It had been talking, but Keitaro had not heard its quiet voice again till now.

"I'll protect you Mariko…" he whispered.

_It's not enough. You aren't strong enough on your own Keitaro…_

Keitaro frowned as he thought about that voice. He had never really given it any serious though before, for it had always been there; questioning him, cajoling him, talking the sense back into him, comforting him.

He had always accepted it as part of himself, but now, he was quite sure that two voices in one's head, both using different pronouns, was a sign of mental illness.

_Am I crazy? _He wondered. The voice that he wasn't sure actually existed said nothing and he wondered if it did exist, did it have a sick sense of humor. His brow furrowed as he thought about it some more, before a something suddenly occurred to him.

_It always says my name. It doesn't say I, or me… Like I do. It says 'You' and 'Keitaro'… I _AM_ crazy… Fuck…_

_No... _whispered the child-voice in a sensible, common-sense type tone of voice that usually made him stop and think,_ You're not. _

"Fat chance of me believing that…" hissed Keitaro out loud, crossing his eyes as though he hoped that would help him see whoever the other person in his head was.

He glanced at Mariko laying on her hospital bed and wondered for a moment of what she would think about him discovering another voice in his head.

_She'd probably start laughing at me… _

He waited for the child voice to say something in reply, but it had disappeared again.

Massaging his temples, he wondered vaguely if his father had any problems with odd voices in his head. For some reason, he doubted it.

Suddenly, a wave of fatigue washed over Keitaro, and he felt his eyes grow heavy. Oddly, an irresistible impulse to be nearer to Mariko accompanied the feeling of exhaustion that was nearly overwhelming him.

After a minute's second thought, Keitaro eased himself over the bed's guardrail and settled himself awkwardly on his side next to Mariko's still form.

Resting his head on his arm, he sleepily studied her face for a moment, before sleep claimed him.

* * *

A/N: Hey everyone! My wrists still aren't better and my beta's _STILL_ havn't edited this (Despite the fact that I sent it to both of them two weeks ago), but I'm sick of waiting, so I'm putting it up anyways. I'll replace it with the edited version once they finally remember or they're less busy.

Thanks to my reviewers on the last chapter.

Moongirl

Raye Sun

Inu devil

Lyra Sakura

BakaBokken

Inulover

Midnight spirits

Blackgirl06

Jadependant

Amargo Scribe

Angelica incarnate

Snowecat29


	15. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

Sun was already streaming through the windows of the ICU when Keitaro was rudely awakened by a pair of hands roughly seizing his arms and yanking him out of the bed. He hit the floor with an uncharacteristically heavy thump and was on his feet in seconds, dodging out from under a foot that had been trying to keep him on the floor.

He was barely able to stop his claws a millimeter before they turned Kappei Fujita's face into mincemeat. The older man glowered at him, his dark eyes narrowed and burning with something close to hatred. Anna-Marie and Akihiro stood silently at the foot of Mariko's bed, their eyes wide and fearful.

"Stay away from my daughter," He hissed, making to shove Keitaro towards the door. It was as futile as trying to move a mountain. He wasn't budging for anything, much less the likes of Mr.Fujita.

"No," growled Keitaro, his golden eyes fierce. His hanyou ears were flat against his skull and his lips were curled back in a feral grimace that revealed his wickedly sharp fangs. His long black hair was loose and unkempt and his body was resembled a coiled spring that was ready to snap. It made him seem more animal than human.

Kappei stepped back, away from claws that glinted in the sunlight, but his eyes said that he was not about to swallow his words.

"You have no right to be near my daughter!"

"I don't give a fucking hoot to whether you think I have the right or not. I'm not going anywhere."

"Kei…taro…?" a soft voice made everyone present jump. Keitaro whirled around to see Mariko's eyelids fluttering. She was facing him, but her eyes seemed unable to focus on anything that was more than a foot or two away.

Instantly, he was at her side, holding her hand. "I'm here Mariko… so's the rest of your family."

Mariko turned to look at what must have been a blurry form at the foot of her bed. "Mommy?" she whispered in English. Tears cascaded around Anna-Marie's face as she came around the other side of the bed and enveloped Mariko in a gentle hug. "I'm here baby…I'm here."

As one, both Akihiro and Kappei pushed forward and Keitaro was forced to step backwards so that Mariko could be near her family. As she was wrapped up in hugs by both her parents, Keitaro turned away to look out the window and bit his lip as he listened to their soft reassurances that they were there. He listened as both Mariko and her mother held each other and cried and silently bore the agony of smelling Mariko's salty tears.

He listened intently as Anna-Marie retold Mariko what he had told them the night after he had brought Mariko into the hospital, and barely noticed that Akihiro had broken away from the bedside and was now standing beside him at the window.

"You saved her," he said suddenly and Keitaro jerked involuntarily, his gaze shifting down to peer at the 12-year-old boy, who was staring back up at him earnestly.

"You could say that," said Keitaro morosely, staring out the window once more, "but it was my fault she got in trouble in the first place."

"Are you sure?" asked Akihiro, "Mari said she went out to see that Souten person on her own – Who is Souten, anyways? I've never heard of her before."

"Thunder demoness," said Keitaro dully, "Old friend of Shippou's, who, in turn, was adopted by my mother when he was younger."

"Is he a youkai?" asked Akihiro. Keitaro nodded. "He's a Kitsune. Bit of an ass too."

"Ohhhhh…. Cool… I wish I could come with you guys sometime… the feudal era is so exciting,"

"That excitement that you're talking about is what nearly got Mariko killed," said Keitaro bluntly, staring down at the boy, a hard look in his golden eyes. Akihiro's face fell. "Oh…right…"

* * *

Beyond whispering his name when she had first regained consciousness, Mariko said nothing to Keitaro as her recovery progressed. There was no anger in her hollow blue eyes, but it seemed as though she had nothing to say to him. So he sat by her side, never leaving and never speaking.

When the doctors broke the news that she would probably never walk again without assistance, she received it calmly, with only a single tear that traced its way down her cheek and dripped off her chin onto her hospital gown. She listened with a vacant expression as they explained about the physiotherapy that they could do with her and perhaps, in a few months time, all she'd need would be a cane or a brace.

When Keitaro was woken up by a strange sound about two weeks after her awakening, he found her standing upright next to her bed, all her weight braced on her the bed and her good leg as she struggled to make her lame leg cooperate. She seemed to be trying to keep it from bending out from under her. She lifted it with her thigh muscles so that it didn't drag on the floor and hopped to the end of her bed. Carefully, she transferred her weight to the IV tower and bit her lip, before taking a determine hop towards the bathroom.

He said nothing and watched her out of the corner of his eye, curious to see what she would do. She was barely three hops away from her bed, dragging her IV tower behind her when she began to tumble sideways, the strength in her good leg giving out.

Keitaro was up in a flash and caught her before she hit the ground.

"Keitaro!" she gasped, her blue eyes wide. "I thought you were asleep!"

Keitaro couldn't hold back the grin as her stunned words reached his ears - the first that she'd spoken to him in over two months.

"Did you really think you'd be able to move without me know about it?" he asked playfully as he righted her.

"Y'know – for a second there, I actually thought I could," replied Mariko, with a tiny smile as Keitaro helped her limp back to her bed, supporting her weight easily as she leaned heavily on his arm and shoulder and his clawed hand gently steadied her when she began to wobble.

"You look different." She remarked after a moment when he had set her back down on the bed. "- and so do some of hospital staff."

Keitaro's ears pricked up and he sat down next to her. "Different? How so?"

Mariko shrugged. "There's a sort of a glowy aura around you and some of the nurses and doctors. One of the janitors has it too. It's kinda hard to see – especially when it's daytime – but I started seeing it when I woke up."

Keitaro felt the bottom of his stomach fall out. _She can see my youki! _

"Glowy aura?" he repeated, struggling to keep his tone casual. Mariko nodded. "I'm not sure what it is… but it's rather strange. It's like magic. I don't know how it started."

"I think I may know why that is…" said Keitaro uncomfortably, swallowing audibly.

"Really?" she said, brightening. Keitaro nodded, determinedly not looking at her straight in the eye.

"You see my youki. The people you see it on here are people who have youkai blood. Only one or two of them are full youkai. Most are hanyous, like me – but they're more like only 1/8 youkai, 1/16 or even 1/32. I wager some of them don't even know that they're part of a different race," he said. "That janitor you mentioned is a fire hanyou."

"Do you know why I see them?" asked Mariko, looking somewhat troubled. Keitaro bit his lip and stared at his lap.

"The leopard youkai," He said softly, lying through his teeth. On the bed, Mariko tensed and she began to shiver.

"He did something else to me?" she whispered, her eyes clouding with tears.

Keitaro shrugged. "Mating bond – or a part of it, at least. I don't really know anything about it. You don't have to worry about it anymore though. He's dead. At least now, no youkai can sneak up on you."

"Small comfort," she spat bitterly. "I suppose that bond is permanent?"

"I don't know. Probably not, considering he's dead and you're still here."

Mariko nodded, her gaze turning out the window. She was silent for several minutes, before she turned back to him, a strange expression on her face.

"You killed him didn't you?"

Keitaro looked away, unable to meet her eyes and his ears drooped. He hadn't been able to tell anyone what had happened. The shame and the guilt ate away at his insides. He lost control of his youkai blood and he had almost hurt Mariko also. That in itself was unforgivable.

Mariko said nothing, but he felt her hand come to rest lightly on his shoulder and squeeze slightly. Keitaro glanced up at her and saw that she had a small, cautious smile on her face and her expression was reassuring. The hand on his shoulder squeezed a little tighter.

"Keitaro…. It was my fault. I went out there, even thought I knew better. I can't really remember or say anything about what you did or what happened, but part of me is glad that there'll never be a chance that I'll have to face that…demon…again…"

Keitaro nodded slowly, and then jumped slightly as Mariko wrapped her arms around him in a gentle hug.

* * *

Mariko stared down at the well, a terrified expression on her face.

Six weeks had passed since that day Mariko had struggled to cross her hospital room and fallen. She had undergone the first stages of a rigorous physiotherapy program worked out by one of the physicians and her broken arm had healed. She was still lame though. There was no repairing the nerves and muscle tissue that had been eaten away by the youkai's poison.

She had been given a brace that kept her leg straight from the knee down, preventing it from bending out from under her. As a result, she could hobble around with the help of a cane, often comparing her gait to that of Dr. Gregory House, who, Keitaro gathered, was a main character on an American TV show she liked.

Most of her wounds had healed also, but most told the tale of their existence by long, whitish scars that crisscrossed her torso, legs and lower arms. Self-consciousness drove her to wear jeans and a long sleeved t-shirt, despite the humid day. She was ashamed of her appearance in a way that she had never been before and the sight of her nervously checking the mirror to make sure most of her scars were hidden when they had been leaving the Fujita's house nearly broke Keitaro's heart.

Now he wondered if bringing her back to the well this early had been a mistake.

"I can't do it," whispered Mariko, her blue eyes filling with tears as she backed away from the murky depths of the well. "I can't – I'm helpless…. My metal fans are a joke – and I – and I can't swing my sword without falling down."

She gazed down at the weapons that adorned her belt with a forlorn expression. "I can't…"

"Yes you can…" said Keitaro gently, hooking his finger under chin and taking out his handkerchief, using it to wipe away some of the tears that drew sparkling trails down her cheeks. "You're not as helpless as you think Mariko – and you've got me to protect you from all those evil types roving around the Sengoku Jidai – Besides -" He adopted an incredulous expression, "- do you _honestly_ think I'm going to let you out of my sight?"

A small smile was his reward for the reassurances. "No…" she said softly, "but what about the evil types roving around the present?"

"They'll have to get through me too," replied Keitaro sagely, scooping her up bridal-style and jumping up on the edge of the well. He regretted picking her up almost instantly, for her now nearly intoxicating scent was now directly under his nose. Struggling to ignore it, he gave Mariko one last reassuring smile before leaping into the abyss.

As the walls of the Sengoku Jidai well materialized around them, a sharp spike of fear radiated through Mariko's already anxiety-tinged scent.

"Don't worry," said Keitaro as he flexed his muscles and leapt straight up out of the well. Landing lightly on the grass, he set Mariko on her feet, a hand staying around her waist to steady her as she leaned heavily on her cane. "I've got you – Do you think you can walk to the village?"

Mariko nodded silently, and they set out across the grassy meadow and under the eaves of Inuyasha's forest, their pace almost painfully slow for Keitaro. He kept the impulse to scoop her up and carry her there under wraps. She needed to walk there on her own.

As they reached the edge of the rice fields, two small boys playing in one of the ditches - whom Keitaro recognized to be the mischievous twin sons of the village headman – caught sight of them.

"Mariko-san! Mariko-san!" they shouted as they came pelting towards the two of them. "You're back!"

Mariko smiled and some of the fear that had been so prevalent in her aura evaporated.

"Toshi! Tamasine!" she called happily. Without thinking, she let go of Keitaro and crouched down to hug the two boys who were barreling towards her, losing her balance immediately. Keitaro caught her just short of falling, but wasn't fast enough to catch the two boys and there was a small pileup, with Mariko on the bottom, him in the middle and the two little boys on top.

Instantly, Keitaro was upright, plucking the boys off of him by the scruffs of their tunics and setting them down a few feet away before returning to Mariko. The scent of her tears hit him like a sledgehammer as he pulled her upright and she collapsed against him, sobbing. Instinctively, Keitaro wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, burying his nose in her hair.

"I can't…I can't go back…" she sniffed into Keitaro's shoulder, between rattling breaths and the floods of salty tears rolling down her cheeks. "Look at me… I can't even…I can't even - _hug - _the people I care about…"

"What are you doing now then?" asked Keitaro softly, a slightly teasing lilt to his voice and he felt her stiffen for a moment, before her grip on his shirt tightened and she let out a small gasping noise.

A small, scuffing sound from one of the twins made Keitaro look up. They were both wide-eyed and looked very confused. Toshi, the smaller twin, was hiding behind his brother.

"Go," said Keitaro quietly, "Tell everyone that we're coming."

The twins scampered off and Keitaro watched them go, a strange feeling welling up in his chest. For a moment, a wisp of memory came to him. A girl with soft grey eyes and a white kimono.

"Penny for your thoughts?" whispered Mariko. She had stopped crying.

"What?" he said, glancing down at her with a startled expression.

"Oh… you wouldn't know the meaning of that expression would you? It means 'what are you thinking about?'"

"Having a twin…" replied Keitaro, looking up again. The twins had disappeared. Mariko mustered up a weak smile as she pulled herself upright and steadied herself with her cane, while wiping her eyes on her sleeve. "I think it'd be cool to have one."

Keitaro nodded. "Yeah…"

"Come on," he then said, taking her arm and steering her around so they were facing the village. As soon as they were out from under the cool, green foliage of the forest, the sun became relentless and a sheen of sweat appeared on Mariko's forehead, explaining why there were almost no villagers working in the fields. Keitaro was only mildly bothered by the heat in his t-shirt and denim shorts, but by the time they reached the perimeter of the village, where a small crowd had formed, comprised mainly of Sango and Miroku's clan, plus about half of the village children, Mariko was bright pink and her breathing was laboured.

"Hold it!" said Keitaro sharply as the kids began to swarm forwards, effectively stalling their impeding melee for the moment. "Mariko needs to sit down."

Mariko shot him a grateful look as he led her to the steps of the nearest hut, which happened to be Keiko's and sat her down. The shade from the eaves of the roof extended just far enough to keep the sun out of her eyes. The second he had let go of Mariko, the swarm reformed.

"You should really take that shirt off," remarked Keitaro, idly fending off squealing children with one hand as they gathered around the two teenagers, chattering loudly and asking questions. _Before you collapse from heat exhaustion… _he thought, nodding to Masuhiro, who waved over the heads of the children.

Mariko raised her eyebrow and shot him a look that said _Did you say what I just thought you said? _And the weight of Keitaro's words came crashing down around him.

"That's not what I meant!" he said hastily, his ears flattening against his skull. _Shit … that was stupid – think damn it - think before you open your mouth! Especially now! _

Mariko laughed. "It isn't everyday that I see _you _turn bright red Keitaro!"

Keitaro felt his face grow hotter, and he determinedly looked away from Mariko, his eyes searching for Shippou and Souten. Shippou was no where to be seen but his scent told Keitaro he was nearby. Souten, on the other hand, was hovering in the shadows that a nearby tree cast upon the ground. She didn't have Raigekijin, but something about her expression dared anyone to cross her.

She was watching Mariko as she greeted the village children, a strange expression on her face. Keitaro made a mental note to go talk to her later. Perhaps he could apologize. There was no knowing if the proud youkai lady would accept it though. He wasn't going to bother with that now though. He would stay by Mariko's side today.

A hand touching on his shoulder brought him out of his thoughts. Miroku. The monk's scent was so familiar that he hadn't even registered his approach.

"I would like to talk to you Keitaro." Something about his voice made Keitaro stand up immediately. Turning to face him, he saw that Miroku's mouth was a grim slash across his face and his violet eyes were severe. Keitaro tried to gauge his mood, but Miroku seemed to be carefully controlling his emotions.

"Talk to me then," said Keitaro quietly. Miroku shot a pointed glance at Mariko. "Alone."

Keitaro frowned. "No - I- "

"We'll keep Mariko in sight," said the monk in a low voice, cutting him off, before turning to wade back through the crowd of young children that was only just beginning to desperse. Keitaro followed him, knowing that Miroku's careful control did not bode well.

When they were out of Mariko's earshot, Souten sped towards them.

"You _marked _her!" she hissed angrily, jabbing him none-to-gently with one of her sharp, clawlike nails. Keitaro felt his ears droop unwillingly and his face coloured. The resolve he had just begun to regain about his actions melted away.

"You don't deny it then," said Miroku calmly. His gaze bore into Keitaro's, as though trying to read the inu-hanyou's mind. Keitaro couldn't tell if his expressionless face ment the monk was furious or amused. _Probably the former... _he though glumly.

"Does Mariko even _know, _you idiot dog!" demanded Souten, grabbing him by the neck of his shirt and shaking him angrily. "You should be killing any males who come near her!"

Keitaro hung his head. "It doesn't work that way..." he mumbled. He could feel the glares of Souten and Miroku boring into the top of his head like lazers.

"What the hell are you talking about baka!" growled Souten, shoving him away.

"I said it doesn't work that way! Not where we come from!" snarled Keitaro. He was about to strike Souten when Miroku stepped between them and Keitaro was forced into dropping his fist by Miroku's hands.

"Why did you do it then _baka?" _Shippou appeared out of the shadows of a nearby hut.

"She was _dying!" _growled Keitaro, his hands clenching into fists, his claws drawing blood from his palms as he struggled to control the urge to throttle all three of them. "Her heart had _stopped _damn it! I couldn't just let her DIE!"

That stopped them dead. Miroku, Souten and Shippou stared at him, shocked.

"Her heart stopped?" said Miroku quietly, glancing at Mariko, who was eyeing the four of them curiously and reaching for her cane. Keitaro nodded jerkily.

"I had four minutes to save her and the fucking nurse wasted two of them fiddling around with a defibulator," he hissed, his body twitching spasmodically. "I had two choices. Mark her or let her die. What would have _you _done Miroku if Sango had been in Mariko's place? Or you Shippou? What would have _you _done?"

He glanced over his shoulder and saw that Mariko was limping towards them with Miaka supporting her. "Don't tell her," he continued darkly. "She'll kill me."

"Who'll kill you?" asked Mariko, coming up behind him.

"Me," lied Souten gibly, and Keitaro shot the thunder demoness a grateful look, which she ignored completely. "He's being a stupid mutt."

"Really? I was more under the impression that someone died. You guys looked pretty grim," she said quietly, looking back and forth between them with a strange expression. They all exchanged glances, wincing inwardly at how close she was to the truth.

"Miaka," said Miroku suddenly, "Why don't you take Mariko to go see your mother? Sango misses you Mariko."

"Hai, Chichi-ue," said Miaka dutifully, steering Mariko away from them. Mariko's eyes narrowed suspiciously, but Miaka's strong grip on her arm (courtesy of the generations of taijiya breeding in Sango's village) brokered no argument and she allowed herself to be led off without a fight. Keitaro kept his nose and ears trained on her as she limped away.

"What is it?" he asked sharply the moment she was out of ear shot, knowing that Miroku wouldn't have sent the two girls away without a good reason.

Miroku glanced at both Souten and Shippou, then cleared his throat. "My knowledge of youkai mating bonds is negligable at best, Keitaro, but I know there is a perchance for error. You are very lucky that you arn't experiencing any of the more uncomfortable and...dramatic... side effects."

"What would you know about side effects?" asked Keitaro suspiciously, his dark eyebrows furrowing. _And how does he know I'm NOT experiencing any side effects? I sure as hell feel different. Not to mention I have to fight my libido every time I smell Mariko up close. _

"I know what I know from my many travels and the experiences of your parents," replied Miroku calmly. "Whatever I missed can be filled in by Souten and Shippou."

"You're going to give me a lecture on the facts of life?" said Keitaro incredulously. Miroku chuckled.

"No, but Sango and I thought it would be a good idea if you went to someone who could teach you about such things. There is only so much _we_ can teach you of fighting and protecting yourself, and now, protecting Mariko now that you are bonded. Even now, you use inherently human techniques. You prefer your sword to your claws and you rarely use your youkai attacks or abilities, apart from the supernatural speed that your inu-youkai blood gives you."

Reluctantly, Keitaro nodded. As much as he hated to admit it, Miroku was right about all his points. He had only used his _Sankontessou_ attack a handful of times and _Hijinkessou _even less than that. If he had any other magical attacks, he didn't know of them.

"You also don't have a sealing sword," continued Miroku, watching Keitaro intently. Keitaro felt his insides shrivel as the horrible memories of that night rose up, clawing at his throat and he shook his head.

"You transformed then," said Miroku quietly and Shippou's breath hitched as Keitaro dropped his head and nodded, his ears flattening against his skull. Seeing Keitaro's guilt ridden espression, Miroku inclined his head. "I thought as much. The leopard was related to the Eastern tai-youkai Keitaro. I don't know who he was exactly, but he was powerful. If it hadn't been for your transformation and your desire to protect and avenge Mariko, you would have been dead at his claws - of that I am certain. You were and _still are _nowhere _near_ as strong as Inuyasha was and he would have found that leopard a challenge, even with Tetsussaiga."

Keitaro winced and averted his eyes. Reminders that he wasn't even close to his father when it came to strength were few and far between, but they stung all the same. Part of him resented being compared to a man that he had never known and who's scent he barely remembered. While he had never endured anything worse than Nishimura's taunts and isolation from his schoolmates while growing up, he found it distinctly unfair that those he had met on his travels with Miroku, Masuhiro, Sachi and Mariko who had known his father expected him to be as strong and powerful as Inuyasha.

He had no particular desire to live up to Inuyasha's legacy. In truth, he didn't know much about it. Mama had told him all the stories she knew, and while his inital conversations with Sango and Miroku had proved to be enlightening, Sango was often reluctant to talk about either of his parents, and aside from a few anecdotes she enjoyed telling, most of his information had come from vague, offhanded comments from Miroku. _"Kagome-sama liked these flowers...", "Inuyasha always used to say that..."_ so on and so forth.

He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he barely heard what Miroku said next.

"Sango and I thought it would be a good idea if you sought out your uncle, Sesshoumaru-sama and reclaimed Tetsussaiga."

Keitaro choked on his spit. _"What!"_

"You heard me correctly," said Miroku, a ghost of a smile on his face. "Sesshoumaru has had the sword since he avenged your parents deaths at the hands of the Dragon youkai and since you are Inuyasha's only son, the sword is your inheritance. It will also help you tame your youkai blood and since you have a bondmate, it should transform for you."

"He avenged my parents?" gasped Keitaro, barely hearing the rest of the sentance. "Didn't he and my father _hate _each other!"

Miroku laughed humourlessly. "Yes, they hated each other for almost two centuries. After Naraku's death however, you could say they settled into a truce. I'm not sure what happened. The final battle was much too chaotic, but as I remember, Your father saved Rin's life and Sesshoumaru saved your mother's with Tensaiga, among other things. I'm sure that Kagome-sama did much mediation between the two blockheads. She actually requested that Sesshoumaru be present for your birth."

"Was he _there?" _asked Keitaro incredulously. Both Miroku and Shippou nodded, exchanging wry grins.

"Inuyasha was _mad,_" laughed Shippou, his green eyes dancing with delight as he remembered how the chronically on-edge Inu-hanyou had been nearly driven insane by the combined pressure of his violent and heavily pregnant mate and the narcisstic presence of his tai-youkai brother. " - But he wasn't about to argue with Kagome. She sat him more in the nine months she was pregnant with you than all the times she sat him in other years combined. I remember how scary she was - Big as a boat and twice as unwieldy, with two pups beating up her insides night and day. Even I couldn't go near her. Her hor-mone-y things kept making her miko powers do odd things, or so she claimed. To this day, I still wonder about whether that was really the truth."

"Huh..." said Keitaro noncommitally, his eyebrows leveling off somewhere around his hairline. His head was spinning. He needed to go sit some place quiet and think...

* * *

Author's note: I drop to my knees and beg forgiveness for this horribly late chapter. I'm sorry it took so long to get this up, but writing the first five pages of this was complete hell. I restarted it three times. After that, I hit writers block and started working on my novel, which is called _Saving Nicholas _and two other fanfiction projects: _Artemis Fowl: Cause and Effect _and a collaboration with my beta reader Aevum, entitled _Hogwart's child, _which involves Snape being forced to adopt his five year old neice, who is the epitome of cuteness and eventually drives him insane. (We consider this punishment for his evilness in the 6th book)

As most of you probably know, _Learning my way_ will have about 30 to 40 chapters (Or so my rough plot time-line that is scribbled in one of my writing notebooks tells me) _and _a sequal, which will be titled _Kimi's song. _Who Kimi is, and why she'll have her own story will become evident in some of the later chapters of _Learning my way. _

Also, I have started a DeviantART account, the link to which is in my profile. **THE PROGRESS ON MY CURRENT CHAPTERS FOR ALL MY ACTIVE STORIES WILL BE POSTED ON MY DEVIANTART JOURNAL BY MEANS OF PERCENTAGES**. I've also posted a crapload of drawings and doodles on "My Space", a website feature that was recently added to MSN instant messenger (link's also in my profile). There's also pics of me and my friends there to, plus a bunch of blog entries.

And now to my reviewers:

Inu-Devil - What you suggested is close to the plot I have planned for this story. Thanks for the idea though, however, I plan for Mariko to remain as she is physically. She has to come to terms with what has happened to her and accept herself, scars and all.  
Inu-Youkai-lover  
Raye Sun  
fatalkatana  
MissMusicality  
blackgirl06  
jadependant  
Amargo Scribe  
angelica incarnate  
Snowcat29


	16. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Keitaro made a beeline for Sango and Miroku's hut. Mariko and Miaka were sitting on a small patch of grass with Rika and two of the other young women who lived in the village, named Gin and Hasano, if he remembered correctly. Hasano held her little baby on her lap and they were all deep in discussion about something Keitaro was quite sure he didn't want to hear about. Sensing his approach, Mariko looked up and waved. Noticing their friend's motions, Miaka and Rika looked up also, their faces brightening at the sight of Keitaro coming towards them.

"Are you well, Keitaro-kun?" called Rika with a grin.

"Not as well as I'd like to be," replied Keitaro wryly, glancing at Mariko. For some unfathomable reason, she had changed into one of Miaka's short sleeved yukata's. She looked nominally cheerful, if a bit self-conscious with her cane lying beside her and her legs drawn up to her chest as far as the brace would allow, while the other girls sat around her. Keitaro relaxed, figuring that being among the woman and girls who had become her friends in the village was probably a good thing.

He was well aware that Mariko was much more well liked in the village than he was (Most of the villagers found him quite intimidating it seemed, even though he never deliberately went out of his way to appear that way) and she had often spent time working along side the other women while he trained or went on extermination missions with Miroku or Sango. Most of the time they had spent alone had been during school hours and when they returned from the Feudal era at night, usually in time for dinner at the shrine telling Mama-baachan anecdotes about the day's events.

Sitting down a ways from them in the shade of a small tree, he half-listened as their talk resumed. They seemed to be discussing babies as Hasano's baby daughter was passed around. Finding the topic not to his liking, he tuned it out and sat back against the tree with his eyes shut and trying to empty his mind of thoughts.

He had nearly succeeded when Rika's voice drifted over. "Keiko told me that she thinks Miho-san is expecting twins."

Mariko's interest seemed to be perked immediately and she began to ask several questions. Keitaro wouldn't have paid it any mind, but the sentence jarred something in his memory.

_"She was big as a boat and twice as unwieldy with two pups banging up her insides." _Once again, Shippou's words echoed through his mind and Keitaro jerked upright, his eyes wide.

"TWO pups?" he said loudly, startling the girls. "What the _fuck!_"

"You alright Keitaro?" asked Mariko warily as Keitaro shot to his feet, and stalked over to them.

"I am," he growled, gently scooping her up. "Sorry to cut this visit short, but I really have to go back, and there's no way in hell I'm leaving you here. We'll come back later. _After _Mama-baachan explains what the fuck is going on."

"Alright," said Mariko quietly, her face falling. Her lack of an annoyed outburst startled Keitaro more than anything else that had happened that day. "We'll be back later," he reassured her. She gave him only a wane smile in return.

* * *

The instant Keitaro pushed open the well house shouji, he growled as he caught a whiff of a familiar and hated smell.

"What is it?" asked Mariko fearfully, noticing his unease immediately and drawing back.

"Nishimura," he spat disgustedly, catching sight of his modern day nemesis leaning against the gate of the shrine, his arms crossed as he looked out over the street below, his uncharacteristically light brown hair tousled by the wind that was blowing aroud the shrine. "What would that fucking coward be doing _here_?"

"I don't know," said Mariko softly, relaxing slightly as she limped across the courtyard next to him, steadying herself on his arm and her cane. "Maybe you should ask him,"

"Keh!" snorted Keitaro, his free hand instantly flying to the hilt of the new sword that hung from his belt. "He's here to cause trouble, I know it."

Hearing his words, Nishimura wheeled around, looking wildly about. His dark eyes fell on the two of them, and for a split second, they widened with surprise and shock. It suddenly struck Keitaro at how strange he and Mariko must have looked, standing outside the wellhouse, him in his shorts, t-shirt and his fathers beads and an ancient looking sword on his belt, while Mariko leaned on him, her ragged scars and brace visible because of the short-sleeved yukata she had borrowed from Miaka, with her _tessen _and her light-bladed katana hanging from the obi and her hair drawn back into one of the traditional styles.

Within seconds, Nishimura had regained control of his reactions. "You look like you did ten rounds with a cat and _lost _Fujita," he sneered. Instantly, he felt a clawed hand wrapped around his gullet and lifted him effortless off the ground as Mariko's balance began to fail and her face crumpled like someone who had been slapped.

"One more fucking word and I _will_ killyou!" snarled Keitaro, drawing his katana with a sinister _schiing _and pressing it against the side of the shorter boy's neckNishimura let out a choked gasp as all the blood drained out of his face. Keitaro pressed the sword's sharp edge against Yukio's skin hard enough to raise a drop of blood. It rolled down Yukio's neck and into his shirt, leaving a small red stain.

"One slip, one more _word _against Mariko and you're dead Nishimura. Hell, I don't even need my fucking sword -" he sheathed it and Nishimura's eyes widened and he started turn sickly shade of blue. " - just my claws will do. I've killed stronger things than you and that conscience of mine that saved you last time has been stretched pretty thin."

"KEITARO!" Mama-baachan's scandalized voice echoed across the courtyard as the main house's shouji slid open. "What on _EARTH_ are you doing?"

Keitaro dropped Nishimura, who collapsed on the ground, gasping for air and turned to face his grandmother, who looked torn between horror and fury, his ears drooping. Behind her stood a shocked looking Houjou Nishimura, clutching what looked like several folders of official looking documents, his mouth hanging open and his eyes betraying his keen disappointment. Keitaro wasn't sure if it was himself or Yukio that had caused it.

He was distracted as Mariko burst into tears and sagged to the ground, her shoulders shaking. Forgetting his grandmother's impeding tirade, Keitaro shot over to her and scooped her up off the ground, cradling her close to his chest.

"I'll deal with you later," he spat as he stalked past Nishimura's quivering form, huddled on the ground as he gasped and wheezed, trying to replenish the oxygen in his lungs. He made it to the house before Mama stopped him, her hand seizing the front of his shirt.

"You're not going to deal with anything or anyone!" she said firmly, her dark eyes boring into his. "You're going to come inside, explain this nonsense and _apologize _to Nishimura-san and his son!"

"Keh," snorted Keitaro, meeting his grandmother's gaze squarely. "Nishimura should be the one apologizing to Mariko for opening his fat mouth!"

"What did my son say?" Houjou Nishimura's voice was calm, with a hint of steel in it.

"He said..." Keitaro hesitated, his ears drooping. He didn't want to repeat the words.

"He said - that I ..." cut in Mariko, her body shaking as she struggled to speak through the sobs that wracked her body. "- l-looked -" she sniffed, "l-like I did t-t-ten rounds - w-w-with a c-cat - and l-lost..."

Mama-baachan gasped, her hands flying to her mouth. "He didn't!"

Keitaro nodded miserably as a new wave of tears cascaded down Mariko's face, making his stomach churn. Instantly, Mama-baachan stepped aside, pushing Keitaro into the house. "Go - stay with her."

Keitaro nodded, and stepped over the threshold, kicking off his shoes and manuevering them around to face the door with his foot. Stalking across the hall way and up the stairs, he elbowed open the door to his bedroom and sank down on his bed.

"Shhhh..." he said softly as Mariko curled against his chest, shaking. "I've got you."

Her only reply was hitched sob, but she curled into him and buried her face in his shirt. The tremors that wracked her body reverberated into his own and he drew her closer, trying to calm her and still the shaking. Eventually, the trembling lessened and her breathing evened out. She had fallen asleep, much to Keitaro's surprise.

He watched her face as she slowly succumbed to the bliss of dreams, the stress lines slowly fading away into nothing. Even with the scar that devided her left cheek in half, she was beautiful, with her long dark hair curling about her face and her pink lips parted slightly. Shifting, he drew back the coverings on his bed and tucked her in, before kissing her forehead and reluctantly leaving the room, pausing at the door to look back upon her sleeping form, curled up under the blankets.

Smiling to himself and knowing she'd be safe, he went downstairs to find his mother and both the Nishimura's sitting around the kitchen table, drinking tea. Untying his sword from his belt, Keitaro set it on the counter with an audible clang before sitting down and wordlessly taking the cup of tea that Mama handed him before she opened her mouth to start lecturing.

"Shippou said something interesting today," he said coldly, cutting her off and not caring if Yukio or his father overheard. They already knew he was hanyou.

"Is that why you came back?" said Mama, looking slightly taken aback. Keitaro nodded. "Who's Shippou?" demanded Yukio. They both ignored him.

"What did he say?" she asked carefully, with a wary glance at the Nishimura's.

"Do I have a twin?" demanded Keitaro, glaring at her. Mama's jaw dropped open and for several minutes, she looked too shocked to speak. Then, suddenly, as though the floodgates that she had been keeping her pain behind burst open, she began to cry.

Surprise rooted the three men sitting around her to the spot and they all exchanged worried glances. The painful smell of her tears immobilized Keitaro, and his regret of his harsh questioning and rudeness was absolute. He and Yukio sat paralyzed, unsure of what to do, but Houjou, being the gentleman he was, shot to his feet and poured Mama another cup of tea.

"There there, now tell us..." he murmured, patting one of her shaking shoulders awkwardly.

An eternity of sobs passed by them before Mama could speak once more and when she did, her voice was small and halting, like that of a child recounting a past trauma. Even when she had talked of his parents, Keitaro had never seen her this broken.

"When Kagome became pregnant with you Keitaro... we were all overjoyed... Your parents... had been trying for almost two years... and then... a double joy... during the first ultra sound... we found out that there would be two babies... you... and a little girl... Inuyasha always would say that that alone made it the pain...of those two years... worth it..."

Mama stopped for a moment, lifting her tea cup to her lips with her trembling hands and took a desperate sip. She managed to drink most of it, but some spashed onto her blouse. Whether she didn't notice the hot liquid splashing across her breast, or didn't care, Keitaro would never know. He felt a lump rise in his throat, choking him.

"Over the months..." she continued, setting down the tea cup suddenly. "You grew and grew in Kagome's belly... Inuyasha... for once... he stopped complaining about returning to the modern era... He was more excited than she was... he suddenly loved the modern age for it's technology."

"The ultrasound," said Keitaro softly, remembering some of her other stories. Mama nodded, and a faint smile tugged at her lips. "Yes... it hurt his poor ears ... but he would mark off the days on the calendar until the next one..."

She was silent for a few moments, but the pain she had been habouring for so long forced her to speak once more. "One of the visits... they came back troubled... you both... were developing normally...they could see your ears... but... the little girl... your sister... she looked human...she _was _human... Inuyasha... was thrilled... he thought she would be spared the ridicule both you...and he endured..." She shot Yukio a dark look, and for once, the human boy looked ashamed of himself.

"- But Kagome was worried... she knew that if... the baby... was human... that you would outlive her... She was bound to Inuyasha... and you would live for centuries... because of your youkai blood...but a little girl... the strands of time would trap and devour her... unless she took a youkai mate... but in the end, none of this mattered..." She took a heavy breath and a fresh stream of tears rolled down her cheeks, and off her chin, mingling with with tea stain on her blouse.

"Kagome wanted to give birth in the Feudal era... even though Inuyasha was completely against it. She wanted to be with her friends and... she wanted to honour Sesshoumaru by allowing him to be present for the birth..."

"He saved her..." said Keitaro, biting his lip and nodding.

"Yes ... From Naraku's poison...and she reasoned with Inuyasha... by saying he could bring her back if anything went wrong... He was strong enough and fast enough... she kept assuring him... and eventually... he agreed..." she said, shaking her head bitterly.

"I don't know much... but you came first... you were stronger... larger... but it taken Kagome hours to birth you...almost thirty... your sister... she came after... but then... it was too late. The cord had been wrapped around her neck... Souta and I waited at the well... waited for hours... then Inuyasha blew by... a little baby tucked into the folds of his haori...We could ran for the car... but when we got to the hospital..." her voice petered out and for awhile, she couldn't bring herself to say anything more as her shoulders shook with silent sobs.

"Souta found him..." she whispered, her dark eyes haunted by the memory. "They... the doctors couldn't do anything... A perfect little baby... who had no chances... to draw her first breath...Inuyasha... he was crying... they had tried to take her from him... but he wouldn't allow it... if he hadn't left Tetsussaiga behind...in Kaede's village... he would have killed them all...and so we found him... in a corner of the emergency room... He was holding her... wrapped in a tiny little white blanket...and the only thing he could say was 'Aiko' - My little loved one..."

She shook her head once more and took another faltering sip of her tea. "Souta eventually managed to convince Inuyasha to let go... and go back for you and Kagome... he gave little Aiko to me... and then he was gone... I had to hold her... I had to hold my grandchild... one who I would never see grow older... she was so perfect... a pale, sleeping angel who...who looked just like her mother... It seemed like hours before he returned... Kagome was still bleeding... but it was normal... and you were healthy... We had lost one child... but we still had you... which is why you are named Keitaro... we were blessed... to still have a little baby... but afterwards... after we buried Aiko...none of us could... none of us could speak of her..."

Her voice broke and she said nothing more. Keitaro's mind was oddly blank as he struggled to process the enormity of the revelations he had just heard. The name Aiko struck a chord in him and a voice whispered to him in his mind. "_You know what you have to do… " _Suddenly, he understood. He has heard Aiko's voice. He had seen her - talked to her in his moment of crisis. She had come through from the afterlife, cloaked in the bleak transparency of death to guide him as she always had. She had helped him bring Mariko back from the greedy claws of death, doing for him what their father had tried and failed to do for her.

_Their father... _Keitaro's brief glimpse of the world beyond the veil was hazy in his memory at best. Mariko's near fall into the yawning chasm was etched there as though cut by diamonds, but he could not visualize anything else save the white circle of heaven and a flash of red and silver in the mists of the abyss. Had Inuyasha helped him also? He would probably never know.

It took him awhile to notice that salty scent that had settled over the kitchen like an oppressive cloud was not from Mama's tears alone. Houjou Nishimura was unashamedly wiping his eyes with a handkerchief and Yukio's face was oddly twisted. He looked as though he was battling some vicious inner demon. Or perhaps he was constipated. Keitaro didn't know or particulairly care - until he saw the bead of moisture at the corner of the other boy's eyes. It was quickly blinked away, leaving Keitaro with the unsettling feeling he had imagined it. Last time he checked, Nishimura Yukio had been a soulless and vain little bastard. He, for once, hoped that Yukio hadn't changed.

Dealing with the revelation that he had a dead sister who talked to him anyways was strange and unsettling enough by itself. Dealing with a sympathetic and/or kind Yukio would have made an already bizarre situation seem completely unreal.

"Miroku wants me to reclaim Tetsussaiga," he said suddenly, to break the silence that was draped over the room like a stifling blanket. Mama jerked and she straightened, her eyes seizing his. "Sesshoumaru has it."

"How did you know?" gasped Keitaro.

"Shippou," she replied simply. Keitaro frowned at the mention of the irritating kitsune. "What else did he tell you?"

"That the Inutaisho stronghold is a week's journey from Kaede's village on foot, when one does not stop often to rest. I got the impression he had made the journey several times."

"Keh. I'm not surprised," said Keitaro thoughtfully, his brow furrowing. "To him, we've probably _gone_ several times."

Mama nodded, her eyes tearing up as she bit her lip. "You will go then - Tetsussaiga is yours. It was made for Inuyasha. It should be used by his son."

The impatient sound of a throat being cleared made the two of them remember they were not alone. Looking up, they saw both the Nishimura's watching them with confused expressions. "What on earth is Tetsussaiga?" asked Houjou quietly.

Mama and Keitaro exchanged uncomfortable looks.

* * *

And here is Chapter 15. All spiffy, poignant, un-beta-ed and utterly heartwrenching. I hope it answered most of your questions.

Thanks to

Brooke

Kimi

Inu-Devil

Raye Sun

whimsy007 - Yes. Kirara will be coming with them. She'll be instrumental to Mariko's survival.

LMW

fatalkatana


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